The authentic Highland Dress was created for the Chocolate Show event in London. Picture: The Chocolate Tree

For this year’s Chocolate Show in London, one of Scotland’s leading chocolatiers, The Chocolate Tree, created a full Highland dress outfit made almost entirely of chocolate.

Expert chocolatiers Alastair and Friederike Gower were inspired by the hit TV show Outlander – the fantasy time travel series set in the Scottish Highlands – when considering their Chocolate Show entry.

The event, which is a highlight of the annual Chocolate Week celebrations, encourages creative entries for its fashion showcase which displays the incredible feats that can be accomplished in chocolate.

The outfit, modelled by The Chocolate Tree’s co-owner Alastair, consists of a kilt, boots, socks, hat, feathers, broach, sporran, sword and even shirt buttons all made from organic dark chocolate.

The Highland dress, which was made from 12Kg of chocolate, was handcrafted by Friederike and took two months to complete.

The Chocolate tree, which has a boutique store and café in Edinburgh’s Bruntsfield, was awarded Best Dessert Outlet in Scotland and also won a Bronze in the World finals of the International Chocolate Awards for its Venezuela Porcelana 85 per cent chocolate bar.

Model for the day and co-creator of the outfit Chocolatier Alastair, said: “This was the first time that Chocolate Tree has fully participated in the fashion Show at Chocolate Week so we wanted to ensure we made a big impact with something that reflected our Scottish roots and the full Highland Dress concept really came from that.

“It takes a lot of technical know-how to be able to master an outfit made of chocolate so we felt this was a great way to show our skill, but also Friederike’s creativity. Modelling the outfit was another art that our model had to master and luckily it handled the catwalk well and didn’t crack or fall apart, which is just as well as I’m not sure what the audience would have made of a true Scotsman.

“I’m hoping to wear it again for Halloween and if it survives, we will put it on display in the shop window in Bruntsfield.”

The café, which serves the very finest chocolate desserts, authentic hot chocolate and gelato, is open daily and also sells the brand’s full range of artisan chocolates or enjoy their monthly tutored chocolate tasting events where guests will discover the secrets of fine flavour chocolate and how to unlock them.

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