9.00am: Having negotiated AA routefinder's obscure directions and spoken to a couple of disapproving locals, I finally stumble across Food is Art's studio at Pamington Court Farm in Gloucestershire. It is as far away from the capital as one could imagine, to the extent that mine and the photographer's cars are outnumbered by wary sheep and cows.

10.00am: After working until the early hours sculpting solid chocolate teapots and cups, Food is Art owner Prudence Emma Staite has to spend the first part of her morning putting together quotes and drawings for a range of jobs, from Slough to Dubai. Since the company was created three years ago, Staite has established herself as one of the only chocolate artists in the country, and as a result has worked on projects as far afield as Australia and New York.

11.00am: Today she is set to continue her work on a theme of the Mad Hatter's tea party from Alice in Wonderland, a set she is designing for cancer charity CLIC Sargent's annual Chocolate Ball at the Dorchester Hotel. As Staite leads me into the back studio I am astounded by how good the oversized chocolate rabbit and life-size Mad Hatter characters both look, covered in thick Belgium Callebaut chocolate.

12.00pm: With the quotes and drawings for the other jobs complete, Staite begins melting a large bowl of milk chocolate to between 50 and 65 degrees.

This will fill her special spray gun, which she will use to put a second liquid coat on the characters and the tea party table. "It's important to get the temperature right otherwise the chocolate has trouble setting, or could simply crack," she says.

1.00pm: After spraying, Staite is forced to turn her attention to creating another solid chocolate teapot that will be used at the Chocolate Ball.

To create this she uses a trifle dish in a process that is very similar to creating papier mache hats, with the exception being that the teapot is not hollow but full of chocolate. "Once the mould is complete I have to sculpt the spout and the handle," she explains.

2.00pm: As Staite, with the precision of a surgeon, sculpts a chocolate doormouse a la Alice in Wonderland onto the top of one of the teapots, the phone rings repeatedly. Fortunately, Staite's mother, who along with her father are her main assistants, is on hand to answer it. Staite reveals that the producers from ITV's This Morning want her to appear on the show with her Alice in Wonderland creations two days after the Chocolate Ball.

"I'm going to do it but it will probably mean having to make all the cups, saucers and teapots again because normally the guests at the Chocolate Ball, many of whom are celebrities, eat everything," she chuckles.

2.30pm: Stuck on the phone herself for around 20 minutes, Staite fields calls from potential clients including Tesco and two Australian companies.

In the meantime, the chocolate characters have set and she now begins preparing the white chocolate that will be used to decorate them with clothes and facial features. For this Staite has to melt the chocolate before placing it in piping bags, similar to the tools used by cake decorators, which allow her to carefully decorate her creations.

3.00pm: I'm curious to find out just how she plans to transport the pieces, but Staite explains that everything is wrapped in clingfilm and then bubble wrapped. "More often than not most of it gets to the venue in one piece," she says. "However, I take some portable heating hobs, the spray gun and lots of chocolate in case anything needs fixing." More problematic is the weight of the chocolate. After picking up two of the solid lumps that will form the tabletop, the smug grin is wiped off my face when I realise that 30kg of the sweet stuff is not what you would call "light".

"In some venues it's a nightmare getting up and down stairs," Staite says. "Fortunately, the Dorchester looks after us and provides us with a team of helpers."

4.00pm As she works on the decoration of the cups and saucers with further helpings of melted chocolate, Staite tells me that as soon as this job is complete she has to turn her attention to creating a chocolate house. "I'm making an entire edible house, complete with fireplace, skirting boards and pictures, for an exhibition at Excel," she says.

5.00pm Finally, the Alice in Wonderland set is complete, and now all that's left is a pre-run of how everything will look when laid out in the Dorchester. After this, Staite will spend the evening working into the early hours once more, wrapping all of the creations ready for transportation first thing in the morning.

6.00pm In between taking yet more calls from potential clients, Staite lets slip her plans for the future. She already has an online shop, but hopes to expand into team-building exercises for companies. However, thoughts of this are put aside when This Morning's producers phone back to ask her to provide a demonstration on how to make a chocolate teapot at home. Without doubt, Staite's teapot will be a lot tastier and more useful than the proverbial variety.

RSVP RECOMMENDS ... Food is Art, Tel 07979 597708, Web www.foodisart.co.uk The Chocolate Printing Co., Tel (020) 7627 6425, Web www.tocpc.com Eat The Paint, Tel 07875 634173, Web www.marktattersall.co.uk Choccywoccydoodah, Tel (01273) 329462, Web www.choccywoccydoodah.com.