Lakefield’s sweet innovation and creative minds have inspired the Lakefield Village Lions Club to transform their annual hot chocolate festival into a celebration of chocolate in any form.
Now called the Lakefield Chocolate Creations Festival, the fifth annual winter celebration is kicking off over the weekend of Selwyn’s PolarFest on Friday, January 31. Over the course of two and a half weeks until Tuesday, February 18, more than a dozen restaurants, cafés, and other businesses in the village will be putting their best chocolatey concoctions forward in support of the Lakefield Village Lions Club.
“We have such a beautiful town and it’s a way to get people out of their houses and into our businesses, restaurants, and cafes with friends and family,” says Sandra Wren, member of the Lakefield Village Lions Club and festival chair. “Since it’s traditionally a slow time of year for businesses, it’s a perfect time to encourage people to see what these businesses might be about.”
Participating restaurants, bakeries, and cafés will design their own one-of-a-kind edible chocolate creations, in either the food or beverage category. Whether hot or cold, the drinks can be spirited, though each establishment must also offer a non-alcoholic beverage.
As the hot chocolate festival, previous years have seen businesses getting creative and over-the-top with their offerings of Smores, Skors, or strawberry-flavoured drinks, often topped with marshmallows, caramel, a decadence of whipped cream — and sometimes all of that and more. While only one item can be included in the competition, many businesses add specialty treats to their menu for customers to pair with the feature.
Other participating businesses will be included in the “Creativity” category, where they will come up with unique out-of-the-box chocolate creations that go beyond food and drink.
The new category was inspired by vendors who, in past years, did exactly that and found innovative ways to share their own versions of “hot chocolate” during the festival. For exaample, Sunshrine Day Spa and Salon offered a chocolate paraffin wax for hands and feet.
“It was such a cool idea and not everybody is going to drink hot chocolate anyway,” says Wren. “We wanted to expand the categories because it’s hard for a business that wants to participate but doesn’t have a kitchen. This gives them an opportunity to participate in a way that’s better suited for them.”
Some of the proceeds of each purchase made during the festival will go back to the Lakefield Village Lions Club, to then be distributed to different local community organizations and families in need.
“We’ll be looking at different charities and shelters and anything that needs that extra support,” Wren says.
Customers who visit a participating business and make at least one purchase of the specialty made chocolatey food or product can cast a vote for their favourite. Customers can vote for as many businesses as they want, but they can only vote once per business. The winners of each category will be honoured as Chocolate Champions.
Voting can be done at the ballot boxes located in each business or online through a voting form that will available via the Lakefield Village Lions Club’s Facebook page at the start of the festival.
“Customers are welcome to go to as many places they want to test the creations,” says Wren. “If you find there are two drinks you really like, you can vote for both of them.”
As a participant herself who uses the festival as an excuse to go out for breakfast or lunch with family, Wren suggests the fun comes in seeing people out and exploring what the local businesses have to offer.
“I test everything,” she says. “I know other people like doing the same thing, so it’s just a great way of getting out into the community and out of the house.”
Considering the creative concoctions that businesses crafted when it was only a hot chocolate festival, Wren says it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with when the options are truly limitless.
“They all have really creative ideas, and some participants started planning as soon as last year’s festival ended,” she says. “We don’t necessarily know what they’re doing until the festival starts, so I’m quite curious to see what they’ll come up with.”
For more details on the Lakefield Chocolate Creations Festival and to keep up to date on participating businesses as they are announced, visit the Lakefield Village Lions Club on Facebook Facebook.
