food

Easter Hacks - 4 Ways

Check out the 4 adorable characters to make this Easter weekend! From chick macarons to bunny butt cookies there's something for everyone.

food

Easter Hacks - 4 Ways

Check out the 4 adorable characters to make this Easter weekend! From chick macarons to bunny butt cookies there's something for everyone.

Supplies

  • 100g dark chocolate
  • 50ml milk
  • 200ml double cream
  • Strawberries
  • 10 Oreos
  • 200g icing sugar
  • Orange food colouring
  • 50ml water
  • Orange piping icing

Steps

  1. Chop the chocolate and add to a small bowl along with 50ml milk.
  2. Melt over simmering water, stirring to combine.
  3. Beat the double cream to stiff peaks.
  4. Let the chocolate mixture cool slightly then fold it through the double cream.
  5. Spoon it between 6 serving pots, then cover and chill for 2 hours.
  6. To assemble the chocolate pots, put 10 Oreos in a plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin to make the chocolate soil.
  7. Add 50ml water to the icing sugar and then add more, 1 tsp at a time, until you have a smooth icing that will coat the back of a spoon - then colour it orange.
  8. Put 1-2 tbsp’s of chocolate soil onto chocolate pots.
  9. Dip a strawberry in the orange icing, and place one on each pot.
  10. Use the orange piping icing to draw a few lines across the ‘carrots’ then chill the pots again until you’re ready to serve.

Supplies

  • 6 pre-made creme eggs or filled chocolate eggs
  • 12 white chocolate buttons
  • 18 orange chocolate buttons
  • 12 milk chocolate buttons
  • 400ml boiling water
  • Firm brown buttercream, for icing and piping
  • 50g melted milk chocolate

Steps

  1. Put the melted milk chocolate into a piping bag and cut a very small hole in the end.
  2. Make the eyes by laying out the white chocolate buttons and piping small dots in the centre of them with the milk chocolate.
  3. Pour boiling water into a jug and submerge a teaspoon in it.
  4. Wipe the teaspoon dry then use it to cut an beak from an orange chocolate buttons - repeat until you have 6 beaks.
  5. Pipe a small blob of buttercream onto your serving plate to hold the creme egg upright.
  6. Then position two orange coloured chocolate buttons at the front, as feet.
  7. Pipe buttercream on the back of the eyes and fix onto the chicks, then do the same to stick on the beaks.
  8. To finish, stick on the milk chocolate buttons as wings.

Supplies

  • 125g icing sugar, sieved
  • 75g fine ground almonds, sieved
  • 2 egg whites
  • Pinch of salt
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 3-4 dabs of yellow food colouring gel
  • Vanilla buttercream
  • Orange stars/ sweets/ piped icing
  • Black & orange piping icing

Steps

  1. Macaron method: with an electric hand mixer, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form. Add a pinch of salt, then add the caster sugar gradually - mixing thoroughly after each spoonful.
  2. Once the sugar is incorporated, add the food colouring and whisk the mixture to firm peaks. You want a vibrant yellow colour as it will fade slightly when you cook them.
  3. Carefully sieve in the almond and icing sugar mix, then fold this through, taking care not to knock the air out of the egg whites. Make sure there are no big air bubbles or lumps of egg white.
  4. Once mixed together, put the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm nozzle.
  5. Pipe 3.5cm rounds onto the a baking sheet lined with non-stick baking paper (leave a few cm between each one - for perfectly sized macarons you can use a template underneath the baking paper).
  6. Slam the macaron tray down on the counter a few times - to help shape them and get rid of any bubbles, then let them sit for around an hour, so that a dry skin forms on the tops.
  7. Preheat the oven to 120C, then cook the macarons for 15-18 minutes.
  8. Remove the trays from the oven and immediately slide the paper off the hot trays. Let the macarons cool completely before you remove them from the paper.
  9. Assembly: once cool, pipe buttercream in the middle of two macarons to sandwich them together.
  10. Use the orange piping icing to secure two orange stars for the feet.
  11. Pipe a beak shaped ‘V’ with the orange piping icing.
  12. Finish by piping black dots for the eyes.

Supplies

  • For the sugar cookies:
  • 175g plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 115g butter, softened
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • To decorate:
  • Vanilla buttercream
  • Regular white marshmallows
  • Mini white marshmallows
  • Heart shaped sweets
  • Round pearl sprinkles
  • Brown, purple, orange and yellow food colouring gels

Steps

  1. Preheat the oven to 190C.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.
  3. Add the egg and vanilla, and mix together, then sieve in the flour, baking powder and baking soda and mix together.
  4. The cookies spread out when you cook them so put just four or six on a tray, depending on the size of your trays. Use about one heaped teaspoon of mixture per biscuit.
  5. Prepare as many trays as you can fit in your oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until starting to change colour. You really don’t want much change in colour before you take them out of the oven.
  6. Let the cookies cool on the tray then move them onto a wire rack.
  7. Repeat with any remaining cookie dough.
  8. You can decorate the cookies as soon as they’re cool - but not before, or the icing will melt.
  9. Divide your buttercream into five. Put one portion straight into a piping bag, and colour the others in different pastel colours.
  10. For each bunny butt, spread icing over the whole biscuit - taking care to create a neat edge.
  11. Chop one marshmallow across the middle and stick this on to create two paws.
  12. Use a small marshmallow for a tail.
  13. Pipe small dots of icing onto each paw and stick on the heart shaped candy and toes.