EASTER

 

 

Eating lots of chocolate treats

 

Always enjoying an Easter feast

 

Stuffing our face’s till we feel ill

 

Tempting ourselves eating more still

 

Enjoying this holiday and all it brings

 

Roll on next years spring

 

By Abbe Cutforth

DECORATED EGGS FOR EASTER

Making a decorated egg for Easter

Looking for crafts to do this Easter? Decorating eggs is an obvious choice, ideal for kids. Plus there are lots of creative ways to decorate your eggs and create a really original and unique looking Easter egg, lovely decorations for your home over Spring.

Here are some of our favourite ideas:

Elastic bands

Wrap the elastic bands randomly around your egg and dip into the food dye, wait until it is dry and remove the bands. You could also remove only some of the elastic bands at this stage and repeat with a second colour.

Thumb-prints

Put some paint in a small bowl and allow your child to dip their thumb in and print onto the egg. When dry, you could turn the thumb prints into animals or faces by drawing on the details with a fine marker pen.

Stickers

Dip the whole egg into a food dye colour of your choice and leave to dry. Decorate using a variety of small Easter stickers.

Crayons

Draw a pattern onto the egg using white or light coloured crayon. Dip into food dye and when you take it out, the crayon pattern will still be visible. Leave to dry.

Egg Creatures

Decorate your eggs with a variety of googly eyes, beads, glitter, sequins, wool, ribbon, feathers etc. This can be done on a plain egg or one that has already been dyed, and a fine marker pen can be used to add detail.

Crazy Paving

Hard boil an egg and then use the back of a teaspoon to break all the shell into ‘crazy paving’. Soak the egg in some food colouring for a bit – when you then take the shell off you’ll have the pattern underneath! A good way to get kids eating hard boiled eggs!

Felt Pens

The easiest option – simply use felt tip pens to decorate you egg. The results can be just as lovely as more complicated decorating methods!

How to blow an egg for decorating

Instead of hard boiled eggs, you could blow the eggs to make the egg hollow and decorate the outside. First make two holes at either end of the egg with a needle and blow through one to make the insides come out of the other (if they’re not coming out, make the hole a bit bigger!)

Then tie some cotton onto the middle of a match. Insert the match into the egg and twist it so it doesn’t come out and you can hang your egg from the cotton. Then decorate with anything – sequins, paints, ribbon etc!

would you you pay £500 for an Easter EGG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Store Eggcels

With Monster Choccie Treat

A London department store is selling a monster Easter egg that weighs the same as a nine-year-old boy.

The 70lb egg could be yours for a weighty £499.00.

It was made by chocolatiers L’Artisan du Chocolat and is studded with hundreds of sugar diamonds

With a fortnight to go before Easter, Selfridges says four of the eggs have already been sold.

Ewan Venters, Selfridges’ director of food and restaurants, said: “The egg is the heaviest we have ever had in the store.

“It is perfect for anyone planning a big party with family and friends this Easter.”

He added: “The egg has been made by a team of chocolatiers who are passionate about luxury chocolate.

“It really does taste as good as it looks.”

PERFECT HOT CROSS BUN’S FOR EASTER

 perfect hot cross buns. 

Hot cross buns are a festive food, rather than a common or garden breadstuff, and they deserve to be treated as such. A rich, golden dough, heavy with spice and sweet with dried fruits and sugar makes them the kind of thing you really shouldn’t eat all year round – which is exactly as it should be.

Makes 16

200ml milk, plus a little more for glazing
3 cardamom pods, bruised
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
¼ tsp grated nutmeg
Pinch of saffron
20g fresh yeast
50g golden caster sugar, plus extra to glaze
450g strong white flour
100g butter
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground ginger
3 eggs
150g currants
50g mixed peel
3 tbsp plain flour

1. Heat 200ml milk gently in a pan along with the cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and saffron until just boiling, and then turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 1 hour. Bring back up to blood temperature and then mix the strained milk with the yeast and 1 tsp sugar.

2. Tip the flour into a large mixing bowl and grate over the butter. Rub in with your fingertips, or in a food mixer, until well mixed, and then add the rest of the sugar and the salt and ginger. Beat together 2 of the eggs.

3. Make a well in the middle, and add the beaten eggs and the yeast mixture. Stir in, adding enough milk to make a soft dough – it shouldn’t look at all dry or tough. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, then lightly grease another bowl, and put the dough into it. Cover and leave in a warm place until it has doubled in size – this will probably take a couple of hours.

4. Tip it out on to a lightly greased work surface and knead for a minute or so, then flatten it out and scatter over the fruit and peel. Knead again to spread the fruit around evenly, then divide into 16 equal pieces and roll these into bun shapes. Put on lined baking trays and score a cross into the top of each, then cover and put in a warm place to prove until doubled in size.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 200C and beat together the last egg with a little milk. Mix the plain flour with a pinch of salt and enough cold water to make a stiff paste. Paint the top of each bun with egg wash, and then, using a piping bag or teaspoon, draw a thick cross on the top of each. Put into the oven and bake for about 25 minutes until golden.

6. Meanwhile, mix 1 tbsp caster sugar with 1 tbsp boiling water. When the buns come out of the oven, brush them with this before transferring to a rack to cool. Eat with lots of butter.