We have been making our own Easter Eggs for years. For me it's partly nostalgic and partly pragmatic. I have wonderful memories of Easter creativity during my years growing up in Papua New Guinea. It was hard to buy Easter Eggs over there, so we would make our own for each other. We would draw a name out of a hat to decide which family member we would make a large egg for. Then we would secretly decorate the egg with piped-on icing, with pictures or a message to surprise them on Easter Sunday. The pragmatic part is that it can be really hard to buy Easter Eggs that meet all my requirements: Fair Trade Chocolate, no dairy, low sugar, low additive AND affordable. I also really enjoy the act of giving something you've laboured over yourself, rather than something just picked off a shelf, and my kids really enjoy the variety that they get every year. We now have an Easter Egg making day a week or two before Easter- everyone makes a bunch and then divides them up into gift bags for the other family members, waiting for Easter Sunday. It's not a difficult process, just a little time consuming. First you need the egg molds. They can be found in many places over the internet (ebay is a good place to start). In Australia, stores like Spotlight or specialty baking stores have them. I have a variety of molds- large hollow eggs, medium and small solid eggs, plus bunny shapes and other non-Easter themed molds of various insects and animals and shapes. You can also buy different coloured foil wraps for that more authentic looking product at the end. Ingredients Chocolate!! Any kind works for this, depending on personal preference and your dietary requirements. The quantities are entirely up to you...buy a few blocks and keep melting more if you run out!! You can make different colours by using dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, or white chocolate coloured with a few drops of natural food colouring (to make pink, blue, green, yellow, purple etc). You can also use different flavoured chocolate- I often do a batch of mint chocolate and another of orange chocolate, to add a great variety of flavour. Method for melting chocolate:
Method for small or medium solid eggs:
Method for Rocky Road Easter Eggs:
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