I've always liked easter, and have many fond childhood memories of the holiday. Now that I have two little girls, I'm hoping to provide the same for them.
Amongst the regular easter activities, this year I decided to make an edible nest and chocolate eggs. After combing the web for recipes, I founded upon a recipe for shredded wheat nests, on the blog of a mom and food writer, Amanda Grant. I was looking for realism and good ingredients and this one seemed to fit the bill.
As for the eggs, they were my own invention with the help of two sized of chocolate candy egg molds, a cheese grater, paint brushes, the microwave and freezer. With a bit of experimentation, I ended up creating three different colors/flavors:
- Coconut Blue tinted white chocolate with dark chocolate speckles. Dark chocolate and toasted coconut center.
- Cherry almond Pink tinted white chocolate with dark chocolate and ground almond speckles. Milk chocolate covered dried tart cherry center.
- Chocolate Orange White/dark chocolate with candied orange peel center.
I assembled these by first making the centers with the smaller egg molds. Then, using a sort of "reverse painting" method, I applied melted white chocolate with a brush to the larger sized molds. Grated dark chocolate was sprinkled on top of the white chocolate to create "speckles". Then, the rest of the mold was filled 3/4 of the way with tinted white chocolate (in the case of the coconut and cherry ones, that is) and the previously made, smaller centers were pressed into the molds before they solidified. Since the egg molds only made "half an egg", I then took two halves and fused them together with more matching melted chocolate.......whew! Actually easier to do than explain!
Anyway, they were a hit, not only with my four-year-old but also the adult relatives. These were fun to make. They actually did take a fair amount of time, but the great thing about chocolate is that you can do a little at a time (which I did), way in advance (which I also did) and they will keep in the fridge.
Served up after easter dinner on top of little goblets with Bishop's weed garnish.
Shredded wheat being arranged inside a cupcake paper placed in a shallow dish.
Making the chocolate orange eggs. This was a great use of the candied orange peel I've had on hand in the freezer since Christmas.
Last one....and now gone. Consumed by Bea and I today after I photographed it.
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