Tag: Easter eggs

10 fun facts for Easter

It’s that time of year again when chocolate eggs fill the shelves, bunnies come out from hiding and Creme Eggs take over the world – yes, you guessed it, it’s Easter!

 

Every year the world goes crazy for pretty much anything egg shaped and covered in chocolate but what’s all the fuss about? We’ve rounded up our favourite fun facts to let you know exactly why we love Easter!

 

  • Over 90 million chocolate eggs are sold in the UK each year.
  • The tallest chocolate egg was made in Italy in 2011 and measured 10.39 metres in height and weighed a whopping 7,200kg – wow!
  • The world’s most popular egg-shaped chocolate is a Cadbury’s Creme Egg. The Cadbury’s factory produces up to 1.5 million eggs every day!

 

 

  • The largest chocolate rabbit was made in South Africa in 2010 by artist Harry Johnson. The rabbit measured over 12 feet tall and weighed 3 tons – now that’s a big bunny!
  • The crackled pattern on the chocolate eggs, also known as the ‘crocodile finish’, was created in the early years of chocolate making in Germany to break up the smooth surface of the egg to cover up any imperfections.
  • Eggs are associated with Easter because they represent the symbol of new life along with chicks which represent new beginning and rabbits which represent fertility. It’s thought that eggs have been given as a gift to celebrate the spring for more than 2,000 years.

 

  • The largest Easter egg hunt consisted of 501,000 eggs that were searched for by 9,753 children and their parents in Florida, 2007. This mass event caused chaos as kids scrambled to get as many eggs as possible in the Florida heat – madness!
  • From October to Easter, Thorntons produce 4.7 million individual chocolate eggs as well as 1.7 million chocolate Easter models using their special Easter egg spinning machines. It takes 1.3 million kg of chocolate to create these tasty treats – that’s a lot of choc!

 

  • One of the most expensive Easter eggs on offer was made from diamonds
    called the Diamond Stella Egg (2006) which was worth a whopping £50,000 –
    now that’s an expensive egg!
  • When it comes to eating a chocolate bunny, 76% of people go for the ears
    first, 5% bite off the feet first and 4% eat the tail first – we’re
    definitely ear eaters first! How about you? Tell us in our comments box below!

 

Where to next?

– Classic Easter recipes

– Easter recipes for kids

– Easter cakes and bakes

 

18 eggtastic ideas for Easter

Think Easter – think Easter eggs? You’ll love our new inventions for Easter egg-themed cooking! Cakes, biscuits and even no-bake treats for the kids, there’s so much chocolatey goodness here…

 

 

 

Easter nest cake

 

 

Easter nests are a childhood favourite of ours and so simple to make – but, as always, our mind went straight to cake! This Easter nest cake is covered in a layer of white chocolate, then topped with a traditional Easter nest mix and as many mini eggs and we could get our hands on! 

 

Giant Easter cookie

 

Cookies are just so much better when they’re giant! Take one giant egg cookie cutter from Lakeland (or shape the dough with your hands), bake up a batch of our scrummy vanilla cookies recipe and decorate to look like your dream Easter egg. 

 

Deep fried Creme Eggs

 

So naughty but so, so nice, you may have heard of deep fried Mars Bars but how about an Easter twist? The melting middle of these crispy bites is a little mouthful of chocolate heaven. We won’t talk about the calories if you won’t….

 

Easter egg brownies 

 

How do you improve brownies I hear you ask – squish Easter eggs into them, of course! We’ve given our delicious brownie recipe an Easter twist. Baked until almost ready, we then pushed some of our Easter faves into each slice. Creme eggs and mini eggs were our choice – what would yours be? 

 

Get the recipe: Easter egg brownies

 

Rice Krispie chocolate eggs 

 

It’s great to get the kids involved in the kitchen during Easter and we made these cute Rice Krispie chocolate eggs with just a little melted chocolate (leave to cool before those little hands get involved) and some cereal. Shaped with an egg-shaped cookie cutter, we placed a mini egg into the centre before they went into the fridge. So speedy and so tasty.

 

Easter egg cake

 

Easter cakes are so much fun to bake and we thought we’d go one step further and make a cake shaped like an actual Easter egg. We used an oval-shaped tin and covered the finished cake in two layers of melted chocolate (well, it is Easter!) and topped with pretty pastel dots and a bow. This naughty cake has a super-sweet hidden centre – we just couldn’t resist making it a rainbow cake, it’s our new favourite thing! 

 

 

Hidden Creme Egg biscuits 

 

What’s that inside the biscuit, you say? A Creme Egg? Go on then! Shape biscuit dough around a mini Creme Egg and bake. Delicious hot or cold, cut into a freshly-baked one and watch the chocolate ooze out. 

 

Easter egg chocolate slabs 

 

If you don’t have the patience to make your own Easter eggs, these are the next best thing. Chocolate slabs are a great base to attach all your loved ones’ favourite ingredients. Simply tape down a cookie cutter to a piece of greaseproof paper, pour in some melted chocolate, throw on some sweets and set in the fridge. If it looks like the chocolate is seeping out, weigh the cutter down with a small bowl/plate. 

 

Fried egg cake 

 

How do you make an Easter egg even better? Fill it with cake! We made our own Easter eggs (using a very handy mould from Lakeland) and filled it with a cake and buttercream filling (like what you’d use for a cake pop recipe). We thought it would be cute to top the egg halves with a little fondant egg as well! 

 

Easter egg biscuit pops

 

We just love food on sticks and these biscuit pops are no exception. Cut with a egg cookie cutter and dunk it in chocolate, they’re a really fun base to decorate with the kids. We baked cookies with the sticks in but you can attach after with a little melted chocolate, if you wish. 

 

Marbled mini eggs 

 

These mini eggs might not have the hard outer shell of the shop-bought favourites but that doesn’t mean they’re any less delicious. A pretty marble effect is easy to achieve, simply swirl white and milk chocolate into a mini egg mould (thanks again to Lakeland) and leave to set. These would be lovely atop an Easter cake. 

 

Creme Egg characters  

 

Hello there! Creme Eggs aren’t just for eating – you can make fun little characters with them too! A little coloured fondant, a whole lot of imagination and voila! 

 

Hidden centre Easter eggs 

 

If you are making Easter eggs from scratch – why not include a surprise hidden centre? We opted for melted marshmallow and little lemon curd but you could add melted white chocolate, fruit or even mini eggs! 

 

Easter egg choco-pops

 

Chocoholic? Don’t let biscuit or cake get in your way – make some pure choc lollipops. Place a lollipop stick on some greaseproof paper, drizzle a circle (or egg-shaped) dollop of chocolate onto it, press in some lovely toppings and leave in the fridge to set. Simple! 

 

Giant Easter nest 

 

 

Every child’s dream! This giant Easter nest is a lot less fiddly to construct that the standard mini ones – and you can fit loads more mini eggs inside! We placed a layer of grass (well, green-coloured coconut) underneath for a earthy twist. 

 

Fried egg biscuits 

 

Fancy an egg? These simple biscuit toppers turn plain biscuit dough into a fun Easter treat. Simply cut out cookies using a egg-shaped biscuit cookie cutter and top with a layer of white fondant and a circle of yellow. 

 

 

Creme Egg milkshake 

 

Are you so obsessed with Creme Eggs you wish you could drink them? Well, know you can… kind of. We took inspiration from milkshake shop Shakeaway and combined our favourite Easter treat with a little vanilla ice cream (4 tbsp) and some milk (roughly half a glass) and blended to make this delicious creation. 

 

 

Easter egg cake pops 

 

These may look like chocolate eggs on sticks but they’re actually cake pops! Crumble up some cake and blend with a little buttercream (or melted chocolate) to make egg-shaped balls and then dunk in chocolate. Fun and so much easier to eat! 

 

Don’t forget to send us in your Easter treats for your chance to win these amazing Russell Hobbs goodies

 

Where to next? 

See more Easter cakes and bakes 

Easter biscuits

Easter cupcakes 

By Holly Arnold & Jessica Dady with thanks to Lakeland, Hobbycraft and Dr Oetker

Skinny Easter Egg Cake Balls

A fun Easter dessert idea, cake balls decorated as Easter eggs! Put them in a basket and watch them disappear.

We are all ready for the Easter bunny in my home. We painted some eggs, we made cake balls, maybe we’ll even get to see the Easter bunny himself.

These cake balls were fun to make, and are made lighter than traditional cake balls by using a box cake mix, egg whites and fat free Greek yogurt – no oil, no butter required! Because I use a cake ball pan, there’s no need to mix the cake with frosting, which is time consuming and adds a lot more fat and calories.

Aren’t these just the cutest?!  And yes, they taste just as good
as they look. To make them look like
Easter eggs, we drizzled some colored chocolate on them, used some sprinkles,
and just played had fun playing around with them.  I packed some in small boxes to give away as Easter gifts.

You can come up with countless ways to decorate cake balls, using the same basic recipe with this Nordic Ware Cake Pop Pan[1] I purchased at Target. I highly recommend buying 2 pans if you plan on making these to speed this up. The candy melts were from Wilton, which I purchased at Michael’s.

Skinny Easter Egg Cake Balls
gordon-ramsay-recipe.com
Servings:
48 • Size: 1 cake ball • Old Points: 2 pts • Points+: 3 pt
Calories:
102.5 • Fat: 4 g • Carb: 15 g • Fiber: 0 g • Protein: 1.4 g • Sugar: 7 g
Sodium:
68 mg

Ingredients:

  • 16.5 oz package yellow cake mix(or flavor of your choice)
  • 6 oz plain fat-free Greek yogurt (Chobani)
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • baking spray
  • 48 oz Wilton colored candy melts (20 oz used total, calculated in n.i)*
  • sprinkles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a the cake pop pan with baking spray.

Combine all the cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat until combined. Place the batter into a pastry bag or large ziplock bag with the tip cut off.

Pipe the batter into the prepared cake pop pan and bake about 18
minutes (I rotated the pan after 10 minutes to be sure they baked
evenly). Let it rest 5 minutes before opening the pan.

Place cake balls on a wire rack and repeat with remaining batter. Using a scissor, cut the seam off the balls.

Refrigerate the cake balls for about 45 minutes, this helps the chocolate stick to the cake.

Melt some of the white chocolate melts in the microwave according to package directions, careful not to burn the chocolate. Insert the tip of a bamboo skewer into the melted chocolate, then into the cake ball (this helps hold the stick in place) and dip each ball into the chocolate, then onto a sheet of wax paper.

To cover the little hole you get from the skewer, dip the stick in the melted chocolate, then onto the hole.

Repeat with the remaining balls and chocolate. When the chocolate
hardens, place into mini cupcake liners and top with sprinkles and
drizzle with chocolate if desired.

Makes 48 balls.

*I weighed the chocolate on each ball to calculate the nutritional
info. Although the recipe calls for 48 oz of chocolate, not all of it
will be used, but you will still need to buy extra so you have enough to
coat the cake balls. I calculated 0.4 oz of chocolate on each cake
ball.

Sprinkles and decorations not included in n.i.

References

  1. ^ Nordic Ware Cake Pop Pan (www.target.com)

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