Did you ever look at your car’s wheels and wish you could eat them? Ha, who hasn’t? Well, we’re all in luck, because a Japanese company has released a mold that allows you to make, at home, your vown wheel-shaped chocolates. And they’re not just any old steel rim; these are BBS F1 racing wheels, baby.
The project is the brain-child of 4Design, a company that blends traditional Japanese crafts with an automotive theme (one of their previous creations was a chair made of mandrel-bent piping like the kind used to form headers and exhausts). The goal, according to 4Design, is to bring attention to the humble casting mold, a crucial part of the industrial manufacturing process that most end users don’t really think about. They wanted to bring the “joy of manufacturing” to people in a fun way, and what could be more fun than making your own sweets?
This time around they’ve collaborated with BBS Japan and Fujita, a manufacturer based in Takaoka, Toyama. Takaoka city is known in Japan for its traditional copperware, which can be traced back to the region as early as 1605. Many of Japan’s massive bonshō temple bells were made in this region using a similar casting and mold process. BBS Japan’s aluminum wheels are made in Takaoka as well, hence the hometown collab.
The molds seem to resemble a work of art in themselves. They’re comprised of six substantial machined aluminum and shot-blasted pieces treated with alumite. The pieces fit together like a 3D puzzle measuring approximately 3 inches square and 4 inches high. When assembled, they leave an empty space in the middle into which you pour molten chocolate. Once the chocolate hardens, you pull the pieces apart to reveal your edible Formula 1 wheel.
It took 4Design six months from ideation to finished product. The team actually designed two molds, one that makes a 1.4-ounce BBS wheel, and a 1.8-ounce “sofa cushion” box with the BBS logo inside. 4Design hopes to hold some hands-on experience sessions at the Factory Art Museum in Takaoka. All we know is that the results look absolutely delicious.