Cabana Bar
About this build
Phil's 1.5 kg Cabana bar recreation combines coconut, cherries and milk chocolate. See the original mould, filling and step-by-step build photographs.
Archive summary updated
Read the original account and photographs ↓
What the original account establishes
These notes distinguish the recorded result from quantities or settings the contributor did not specify. Follow each source link to the original passage.
- The shopping list records two 400 g chocolate bars, plus glacé cherries, desiccated coconut and golden syrup. It gives no weights for the three filling ingredients, so it does not establish a reproducible filling ratio. Source 1 · Source 2
- Phil used a parchment-lined loaf tin, built the chocolate shell in stages, added the coconut-and-cherry filling and chilled the sealed bar for a couple of hours. He recorded a 1.5 kg result and an unwanted surface bloom; the tin dimensions are not given. Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4 · Source 5 · Source 6
Notes from the contributor
Selected passages from the original account. Quantities may describe shopping, tests or the final build; follow the linked passage for its full context.
Here’s the ingredients; some choc, coconut, glace cherries and golden syrup.
Read in context →
Finally I cut this Christlike 1.5Kg eighties flashback baby (needing a very large and sharp knife by the way, this chap was both big, heavy and hard) to reveal it’s internal spiritual delights.
Read in context →
Archive guides · Explore projects
The original account
My favourite bar was always the Cabana, lovely soft and sweet coconut with cherries mixed in surrounded by milk-chocolate – but they were discontinued in the nineties.
Think of this as the Cabana’s resurrection, only this time the shroud left behind was made of baking parchment.
Here’s the ingredients; some choc, coconut, glace cherries and golden syrup.
I started off with a lightly-buttered loaf-tin, lined it quite badly with baking parchment and poured in some of the melted chocolate to form a base.
I let this set then repeated four times to cover each of the sides – and yes, this was tedious but then I was left with a little chocolate coffin.
I heated up some syrup until it was more "liquidy", tipped in the coconut and cherries, stirred, semi-accidentally ate a fair bit of it which made me a bit sick then tipped the rest into the chocoffin.
I let this settle before melting my last batch of choc (and burning myself a little 🙁 ) to form the top/bottom of the bar. Then slammed it in the fridge for a couple of hours and prayed.
I slowly peeled off the "shroud" of paper to reveal a rather unholy sugar-bloom effect on my messianic chocolate saviour. Aesthetically disappointing but it doesn’t affect the taste.
Finally I cut this Christlike 1.5Kg eighties flashback baby (needing a very large and sharp knife by the way, this chap was both big, heavy and hard) to reveal it’s internal spiritual delights.
My tongue thanked me for recreating this lovely snack although I have no idea what to do with the remaining 85% of it that remains untouched – what’s that? 5,000 people in need of a quick snack, I might have just the thing!!
Cost breakdown;
2 x 400g choc @ £1.54 each = £3.08
1 x Glace cherries = £1.05
1 x Desiccated coconut = £0.60
1 x Golden Syrup = £0.65
Total = £5.38
