Did you know all 15 million Colin the Caterpillar cakes have been made in Oldham for the past 30 years? We were granted a special visit inside the historic factory home of the M&S cake
I'm watching, near hypnotised, as a dizzying row of chocolate caterpillar cakes are carefully being brought to life, foot by foot and spot by spot, right in front of my eyes.
And walking around the factory floor here you can see the pride that people have here in creating one of the nation's favourite treats. Bev Nolan has worked here for the past 38 years and she is one of our guides on our exclusive visit inside the factory. There's 39 staff working constantly to create Colins around the clock here at the factory. It's a 24/7 business bringing the smiley-faced creature to life and packaged up to be sent to M&S stores across the UK.
This was perhaps the one thing I was not expecting - just how much of these M&S cakes are perfected by a dedicated team handcrafting them all for our delectation. It's hypnotic watching them roll all the Colins up before they are drenched in chocolate. The not-quite-perfect Colins all then get sent off to Park Cakes legendary Factory Shop which is open to the public as well as factory workers and where you can pick up a real bargain if you don't mind a broken cake or slightly imperfect custard tart.
The army of workers are stationed along a conveyor, with each stage of the cake expertly created - from the creamy ganache piped into each hollowed out cake to the drizzle of chocolate sauce and addition of brownie pieces. Once boxed up, each set of two cakes are weighed and then sent on to be packaged.
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