Chocolate Artefact Museums

A UK food artist whose stellar clients have included Mick Jagger and world-famous toy store Hamleys is turning her extraordinary talent to chocolate. Sarah Hardy, a classically trained sculptor, is taking the luxury chocolate market one step further with perfect replicas of fossils, sea creatures and even anatomically correct human organs. All are exhibits in The Edible Museum, the business the mother of two runs from her kitchen table at home in Essex, England. Now she hopes to expand by building a specialist chocolate studio in her back garden.

Chocolate fans are flocking to make her sweet dreams a reality. Sarah aims to raise £10,000 and if she does, then she will secure matching small business funding to build a chocolate studio. A crowdfunding appeal launched earlier this month saw pledges for almost half the target amount made in the first week alone but the celebrity favourite must sell another £5,000 worth of her unique sculptures to ensure she reaches her goal.

Sarah is a fully trained artist and sculptor. She moved into food artistry when she realized she could combine her passion for chocolate and cake with her love of art. She found success with celebrities looking for party showstoppers at London Fashion Week and private parties. But the inspiration for The Edible Museum grew from a request to make white chocolate vertebrae for St Barts Hospital Pathology Museum in London and similar requests for chocolate artefacts have come from America’s most prestigious university Harvard and University College London. Sarah said: "It was only after making a chocolate spine for an exhibition at St Bart’s and again for a celebrity client that the idea for edible artefacts was born. I knew that whatever I created for them had to be accurate enough to fool the eye."

She’s employed the same artistic ethic on the collection launched for her crowdfunding site, which includes replicas of natural history exhibits such as fossil teeth from a Megalodon (giant shark) and a T-Rex. The site also features her copy of a Natterjack Toad, recently shortlisted for the Great British Food Awards. The toad is the first in an Endangered British Species chocolate collection by Sarah, which will raise money for The Wildlife Trust to help protect the creatures’ habitats.