Life really is a box of chocolates for Norfolk trained chef Chloe Saterlay, who has set up a business at home in lockdown.

Eastern Daily Press: Life is a box of chocolates for Chloe Saterlay, who's started up her own firm Lifetime of Chocolate.Life is a box of chocolates for Chloe Saterlay, who's started up her own firm Lifetime of Chocolate. (Image: Archant)

Miss Saterlay, a self-confessed chocoholic, trained in New York and London to be a chocolatier and decided to set up her own firm late last year, selling hand-made sweet treats.

Eastern Daily Press: Chocolate brownies by Chloe SaterlayChocolate brownies by Chloe Saterlay (Image: Archant)

Working from a converted barn in her parents' garden in Honingham, Miss Saterlay makes all her goodies by hand.

She has just one machine to melt the chocolate but otherwise everything is done painstakingly using a palette knife and a careful eye for detail.

Eastern Daily Press: Chloe Saterlay from Lifetime of Chocolate.Chloe Saterlay from Lifetime of Chocolate. (Image: Archant)

And what started off as a little business has grown into her own enterprise Lifetime of Chocolate which is already starting to make a profit.

Eastern Daily Press: The converted barn where Chloe Saterlay comes up with her chocolate creations at Lifetime of Chocolate.The converted barn where Chloe Saterlay comes up with her chocolate creations at Lifetime of Chocolate. (Image: Archant)

Miss Saterlay's love of being in a kitchen began aged 16 and after leaving Wymondham High to go to City College Norwich to study cookery, she did so well, she was offered a chance to train in New York.

She worked there for six months as a pastry chef in Long Island. After that she went on to Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons and then London for two renowned chocolatiers before returning home because of Covid.

"I have a giant quartz slab and a palette knife, I temper the chocolate by eye and then put it into moulds. There are no added preservatives, my chocolates are designed to be delicious and exciting..why wait?

"I make my own ganache, my own fudge, brownies as well as honeycomb. I'm working on some fudge bites for Mother's Day with an Eton mess flavour; using dried strawberries and meringue, coated in white chocolate.

"For Easter, I'm doing a ganache which contains hot cross buns."

Eastern Daily Press: The new white chocolate delights Chloe Saterlay has created for Mother's Day.The new white chocolate delights Chloe Saterlay has created for Mother's Day. (Image: Supplied)

Business really took off after Miss Saterlay made reindeer-shaped chocolates containing marshmallow at Christmas, selling 700.

"Farm shops started stocking my chocolates and then St Giles Pantry in Norwich. I'd really like to open up my own shop in The Lanes, where people can have a brownie, a cup of tea and buy my chocolates."

Eastern Daily Press: Easter eggs by Chloe Saterlay.Easter eggs by Chloe Saterlay. (Image: Supplied)

Miss Saterlay runs her own website lifetimeofchocolate.com and packages items using biodegradable, recyclable boxes decorated with ribbon.

And she admitted she still loved eating chocolate as much as ever.

"I never get fed up with it, I love it so much," she said.