They've got a golden ticket

Despite such sage advice from Willy Wonka's creepily benevolent workforce, a group of master's degree student engineers at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom is pressing on with a chocolate additive layer manufacturing (ALM) system to be used to create customized three-dimensional (3-D) structures and complex geometry out of chocolate. Dubbed ChocALM, the objective of the project is to design and build a desktop ALM system and develop it as a novel chocolate maker that is different from traditional chocolate manufacturing by offering the opportunity to design and manufacture innovatively shaped and personalized chocolates. Confectionary giant Cadbury Schweppes and electronic component distributors Hepco Motion and Farnell have backed the project.