Friday, March 14, 2008
Eastertime
I'm hoping to find time to make chocolate filled eggs but Easter is coming so quickly this year. Here are the links I've been gathering:
Chocolate Egg How-To at Martha Stewart. Note, the drying time for the emptied and sterilized egg shells is two to three days. I would like to do a praline center, like these eggs that Dean & Deluca carries each year.
Golden Chocolate Easter Eggs by Francisco Migoya, an instructor in baking and Pastry Arts at The Culinary Institute of America New York, shown at Apartment Therapy. These include various chocolate filling variaions.
See also the Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs at this Curbly video podcast, and Dyeing Eggs Naturally at the Martha Stewart website.
Mighty Goods has up Easter guides: Easter basket guide, Easter baskets for babies and Easter baskets for grown ups.
I love the candies that high end stores carry around Easter, if only to work as inspiration. Dean & Deluca's Easter Sweets is one I check each year. I love the fizzy-candy filled chocolate frogs. (Why couldn't the Harry Potter theme candies be more like this?)
Williams-Sonoma Easter candies are simple and sweet. I'm admiring the chocolate pea pods and carrots.
I've already mentioned how much I like the Hotel Chocolat's UK Easter Colleciton with the thrillingly large eggs filled with a large variety of chocolates.
I would love to hear about any Easter candy or Easter projects that has you inspired this year. Give me some ideas!
categories: other holidays
I did the chocolate easter egg thing a couple of years ago. It's not as easy as it looks. I should say prepping the eggs and filling them is th easy part. Prying the shell off the chocolate that's the hard part. There's a reason that only a couple of eggs are peeled in the picture. If you have better luck, I'd love to know your secret.
Comment by Rachel — March 14, 2008 @ 6:38 am
You should check out the 11 March post at http://bitterbettyindustries.blogspot.com/. She pimped her bunnies. :D
Comment by Wende — March 14, 2008 @ 7:12 am
I've had my son paint a ceramic easter egg every year at Paint the Town. He did this year's yesterday. It's really fun to get them out every year and see the difference in eggs. :)
He's 13 this year, has a goofy sense of humor and still likes the hunt. I get chocolate from Fran's, and also things like Cadbury mini-eggs, which I put in some really cute plastic eggs I got at Target last year, they look like little animals. I hide books and stuff, too.
Comment by Patti — March 14, 2008 @ 7:26 am
When we were kids, the Easter Bunny always left us an egg made out of sugar. It was hollow, open on one end and you could see a little scene inside. Anyone know what these are called or where to find them? I don't think my kids have ever seen them.
Susan
Comment by Susan — March 14, 2008 @ 8:09 am
Susan - I've always wanted to make one of those, and occasionally see them in the stores around Easter. But, the ones I've seen are never very detailed. I'm finding these called panoramic eggs or panorama sugar eggs (or combinations like that). You can find instructions on making them a few places, here at HGTV. Looks like you can get some at Candy Warehouse, and I found some for sale at Amazon.com. Might be hard to locate but they are still around.
Comment by megan — March 14, 2008 @ 8:21 am
My Mom & I made those sugar panoramic eggs one year. I got a large 2-part chocolate egg mold and used the recipee for day of the dead sugar skulls to make the sugar shell: http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/mexicansugarskull/
We used royal icing in a piping bag to help decorate and close the egg.
Comment by ansley — March 14, 2008 @ 9:38 am
I just found directions to the sugar egg here:
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf334674.tip.html
Comment by ansley — March 14, 2008 @ 9:40 am
"I love the fizzy-candy filled chocolate frogs. (Why couldn't the Harry Potter theme candies be more like this?)"
I totally agree. The HP-themed candies had such potential, but sigh.
Comment by Lillian — March 14, 2008 @ 10:10 am
Everyone in the UK always has huge chocolate eggs filled with extra chocolates (the Hotel Chocolat ones actually seem fairly modest in size) and I am very disappointed not to find them here.
It's not a tradition I want the Minx to miss out on, so I've procured moulds )sadly quite small ones) for making chocolate eggs here http://www.sugarcraft.com and might even get round to making them this weekend. It's also traditional in the UK to make a Simnel Cake, which is a fruit cake baked with a layer of marzipan in the middle.
Can ready made marzipan be bought in the States? I don't think I've seen it.
Comment by paola — March 14, 2008 @ 11:16 am
Paola - I've seen marzipan in shops, but you might need to go someplace a little more specialized than QFC. I've seen tubes of it in the baking aisle of someplace around here, but I cannot recall specifically where. I would head to Whole Foods, that is my default place-that-has-everything.
Comment by megan — March 14, 2008 @ 11:25 am
While I'd love to actually use the Martha Stewart chocolate easter molds I bought years ago, I think this year I might only make time to do the Jello Eggs.
Comment by Lori — March 14, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
I am a sucker for the tried and true rice krispies nest with M&Ms nestled inside like eggs. Super cute and quick and easy. A quick wrap of Saran and you're on your way.
Comment by jensiejean — March 14, 2008 @ 2:24 pm
i made those eggs once the ones where you put chocolate into blown eggs, it was hard but oh so cool!
http://mylovleycrunchylife.blogspot.com/
Comment by corri — March 14, 2008 @ 8:24 pm
Wow, the culinary expert's way looks a LOT easier than Martha's! Am thinking about trying it. It is the same blowing/drying technique used to create Ukrainian easter eggs, a really fun project, but one that requires special tools and dyes.
Love your blog, and thanks for posting these!
Comment by Amy — March 14, 2008 @ 9:47 pm
I am making PEEP cupcakes like crazy up in here!
Comment by justJENN — March 14, 2008 @ 9:54 pm
You can get marizpan in most big grocery stores in the Seattle area, particularly stores in Ballard. :) Its usually in the baking section. I use it alot in my baking and haven't had a problem finding it on my usual trips to the store.
Speaking of grocery stores, in high school I used to dye eggs with onion skins. I would ask the produce guys at the store if I could just take some skins from the onion bins. I loved the way these eggs looked...like marble with reds and greens and gold. My mom always said they looked like they had just come out of a chicken. Heh Heh She just really preferred the crazy PAAS pastels.
Comment by rubycakes — March 15, 2008 @ 8:23 am
Have you seen VChocolates Frogs? They are so cute! I wish I could find a pic link for you, but they are $10 for 40 and they are the most accurate-looking chocolate frogs. You can order them here: http://vchocolates.net/vshop.php?action=products&cat=chocolates&id=4
p.s. Your page rocks. I check it every week!
Comment by ErinCollins — March 15, 2008 @ 1:46 pm
Check out the Australian version - easter bilbies: http://www.easterbilby.com.au/save_bilby/chocolate.asp
Comment by littlem — March 15, 2008 @ 2:14 pm
This year the kids will get to have chocolate bunnies at Easter, because I found this site: http://www.vermontnutfree.com/ for peanut- and tree nut-free candy. (Can't speak to the taste, haven't tried them yet, but the bunnies look good!)
Comment by lynne — March 15, 2008 @ 6:41 pm
Those eggs are too beautiful to eat!!! I can't wait to see what the Easter Bunny leaves in my basket this year. Hopefully a chocolate egg or too :)
Comment by What Happens Next — March 15, 2008 @ 7:16 pm
I don't know how much more difficult these oeufes en chocolat (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63762905@N00/452764892/) would be to make versus solid chocolate, but brownie-inna-shell just looks so awesome.
Comment by Chronographia — March 15, 2008 @ 10:33 pm
Here's another link for Panoramic sugar eggs: http://www.imperialsugar.com/fw/main/Easter_Traditions_Panorama_Sugar_Eggs-1137.html
See's Candy used to carry them in their shops at Easter, too.
Comment by The Java Junkie — March 16, 2008 @ 2:29 am
Hello! I love reading your site, you always have interesting stuff on here!
My frend and I were also disapointed in the way the HP-themed candies were on the market so I made homemade chocolate frogs for her out of a soap mold I found, (I didn't make soap in it , it was bought specifically for the purpose of making chocolate frogs) but the frogs in your picture look exactly like the ones in the soap mold, so you could probally make them. It was a bit messy, but I got to eat all the mistakes ones so it evened out.
Also Wilton makes sugar egg kits to make those little sugar egg thingies.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E317936-475A-BAC0-57A250A4C1B7FF58
I found them as kits with premade decorations to put inside them from michael's? This was several years ago, and it was fun to make but very messy.
Comment by Tamara S — March 16, 2008 @ 6:13 am
Those froggies are too cute! I have been digging on L.A. Burdick's easter offerings too. And I am loving Tamara's tip above about the soap mold!
Comment by Cakespy — March 17, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
I don't know you, Not Martha, but I appreciate that you actually link to Martha, Goddess of The Modern Do It Yourself Movement, ca. 1991.
You might like to know about cascarones, a Chicano tradition.
1. Blow out and dry egg shells.
2. Dye egg shells and dry them out.
3. Stuff with confetti and tape ends shut.
4. Smash them on your friends' heads!
5. It's a festive, irreverent, Mexican-American way to celebrate Easter.
Love you.
http://www.latinworksco.com/cascarones.html
Comment by Catman — March 18, 2008 @ 8:50 pm
I'm planning on trying the Martha chocolate eggs myself. I'll be doing the blowing, sterilization part of it today. Wish me luck.
Comment by Kimberly Ann — March 19, 2008 @ 6:52 am