Easter is here, and with it, our annual opportunity to devour our own body weight in chocolate eggs. Hurrah!
But don’t feel the need to settle for bog-standard Dairy Milk (and definitely not plain old Nestlé). With Easter being hailed as “the new Christmas”, and sales of chocolate eggs up 12% between 2015 and 2016, according to The Guardian, there are increasingly many more exciting options out there.
So why not go for something a little more adventurous this year? (You can always chuck a few Cadbury’s eggs in your supermarket trolley if you realise you’ve made a grave mistake…)
If you’re craving something creamy and willing to forgo chocolate ( big if), we’ve got the perfect alternative for you. The Cheester Egg is made – yup, you guessed it – entirely from cheese. "A hard, slightly crumbly cheese with a creamy texture" and "deliciously sharp flavour," to be precise. (See how it's made here.)
The egg was created by food blogger Annem Hobson in collaboration with independent artisan cheese company Wildes Cheese and is only available in the UK. Grab one at Broadway Market, Alexandra Palace Market or Myddelton Road Market in London, or online for £14.95.
Granted, it may look gross, and it’s a little more expensive than your usual Smarties egg, but just think how many weeks’ worth of cheesy pasta you’ll get out of it.
Traditional scotch eggs may not be everyone’s cup of tea, what with their meaty, eggy interior, but creme scotch eggs, well, they sound like a guaranteed winner to us. These sweet little nuggets have been popping up all over social media lately under the #cremescotchegg hashtag (browse on an empty stomach at your own risk).
While they may not be widely available to buy, they are surprisingly easy to make yourself. One recipe, from Barry Lewis, the founder of My Virgin Kitchen, uses pre-made chocolate muffins, blended into crumbs with a food processor and then used to coat the Creme Egg. How could your family not appreciate these on Easter Sunday? Watch Barry make them here.
Gin and tonic + chocolate = a match made in heaven, we think you'll agree. Purveyors of luxury chocolate, Prestat, have created an egg inspired by our favourite tipple – and it looks set to fly off supermarket – and department store shelves this year. The mouthwatering concoction combines a hollow milk chocolate egg flavoured with lemon oil, and white-chocolate enrobed truffles flavoured with gin and lemon oil. There’s even “a magical fizz that tingles on your tongue,” thanks to a secret ingredient.
Costing £17.50 (or £16.99 on Ocado), it’s not cheap. But if you’re looking to #treatyoself or a special someone this Easter, it might just be worth it.
Heston Blumenthal is known for his unusual – and sometimes downright wrong – culinary combinations. But there’s nothing wrong about his latest Easter creation for Waitrose – the Eggstraordinary Dippy Easter Egg, which has already been flying off supermarket shelves. In typical Heston style, the egg is no usual Easter egg.
With its speckly exterior, the dark chocolate shell looks like a supersize hen’s egg. And that’s not all – hidden inside are tiny British “bluebird” eggs in a nest of edible soil made of caramelised cocoa nibs, freeze-dried passion fruit and white chocolate flakes. The mini eggs are meant to be dipped in the soil before being devoured. Sadly, if you want to get your hands on one of these bad boys, you’ll have to shell out £20.
We can’t promise you’ll love this one. In fact, there’s a 50% chance you’ll hate it. Marmite’s chocolate egg first came on the scene in 2015 and caused quite a stir, with some suggesting it was “a taste too far”. The no-nonsense “yeaster egg” is described simply as, “a hollow, milk chocolate Easter egg flavoured with Marmite”. It’s no longer available to buy from the major supermarkets’ websites (which doesn’t bode well), but you can still order one from The Chocolate Trading Co for £6.45. Go on, we dare you.
We're millennials, so it’s illegal for us to not own pineapple-shaped merchandise. So go on, do the right thing and order one of these. The chocolate pineapple Easter egg, created by Choc On Choc, hails, not from a tropical island, would you believe, but from the Somerset hills. Lift the lid off this life-size, golden chocolate fruit, “to discover an exquisite hollow interior that’s been filled to bursting with golden foil eggs.” The egg may cost a small fortune at £18 plus delivery, but you get what you pay for, and you certainly won’t find one of these down your local Tesco.
“These eggs are as natural as a chocolate Easter egg can get,” so says The Chocolate Trading Co, who have created these rustic-looking chocolate hen’s eggs. Crack open the real egg shells to find a heavenly filling of milk chocolate, hazelnut and almond praline – and no artificial flavours or preservatives. The eggs are also served in a “genuine egg box” (no expense spared!), to amp up the #authenticity. Warm them up in the microwave for a “wonderfully rich dipping treat” (we’re thinking chocolate egg and toast soldiers). £19.95 for a box of eggs is extravagant, yes, but we’ll bet you’ve never had an Easter egg like this before.
Cracking open a Kinder Surprise egg was the highlight of many of our childhoods. The sweet milk and white chocolate. The bright yellow capsule inside. The joy of realising you’d finally got a different piece of plastic tat. What’s not to love? Well, now you can enjoy this fun all over again, as Kinder have just released a supersize version in time for Easter, which are a whopping five times bigger than the original eggs. Toys are based on either My Little Pony or Transformers: Robots in Disguise (we’ll let them off for gender stereotyping because, well, chocolate). Get one at Tesco for just £5.
Like the Marmite egg, this one has also been met with a – shall we say – mixed response. Thankfully, this Pot Noodle Easter egg doesn't contain any of the famous "noodles" teaming with chemical additives. Just a "delicious milk chocolate egg" and a branded novelty mug. There's also a "Bombay Bad Boy" version though, which hasn't gone down well, with one tweeter claiming he'd "rather receive syphilis than a Pot Noodle Easter Egg". Not sure we'd go that far, but it probably won't be our egg of choice this year. They're not readily available, but can be found at various B&M stores for £3.99.
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