Wednesday 4 April 2012

Home Made Easter Gifts

Here are some of the Easter treats we made for gifts this year.  I made these in a few batches - once on my own, once with Mr 3 and once with my friend Claire and her little Miss 3.  The two 3 year olds had a messy ball as you will be able to see in their handiwork!!!!





~ Chocolate eggs filled with salted caramel

Continuing with my salted caramel obsession, I had to try putting this delicious filling inside Easter eggs!  I made the caramel as per the Salted Dulce de Leche that I have referenced twice already - here and here! David Lebovitz's method is my favourite and you can find here.

While the caramel is cooking, prepare the hollow part of the eggs with melted chocolate. I like to use a combination of milk and dark and use the best chocolate I can afford/what is on special...I'm not sure it makes a difference to using chocolate melts, but I personally prefer the taste so use a nice chocolate where possible.





Once the caramel is cold, fill the hollow chocolate eggs with a drop of caramel and then covered it with more melted chocolate.


Once the chocolate has set, join the 2 halves together with some more melted chocolate.  On my first try, I had too much mixture, so the egg didn't join as nicely, so keep the mixture nice and flat for an even join.

First attempt at joining:


Second attempt at joining:



A delicious cross section of chocolate and salted caramel....yum!!!!



~ Freckle eggs

We first made solid eggs by making two solid halves, setting them, then joining them together with more melted chocolate. Then you can either paint or dip the whole egg in melted chocolate and then toss it in 100s and 1000s.  The kids used their hands (of course!!!) and liked to dip the whole egg in - you can see their deliciously messy results below. The paint brush technique was more my style! ;-)







Now, for the kids turn - let the fun and mess begin!!!!










As you can see, the kids enjoyed getting their hands dirty!!! Thank goodness for Claire tidying up along the way all day otherwise my house would have been even more of a barnyard at the end of this cooking adventure!  Of course, the kids enjoyed licking the spoons and their hands most of all. It was surprising that although they were surrounded by so much chocolate all day, they didn't really eat that much...luckily!

I also made some versions of these eggs that were hollow in the middle which were slightly more fragile, but delicious!!!

We made some dark varieties for gift recipients who are dark chocolate lovers and later this week I am making a special batch of white chocolate eggs for my husband.





~ Chocolate & Peanut Butter Easter Birds Nests.  Filled with mini birds eggs and mini chicks from Big W.  This was the most fun and easy for the kids to do.  I made these last year with my then 2 year old and he loved it and it was so simple and cute so thought we'd do it again.  I got the idea and directions from the fabulous Planning Queen Nicole - you can see her post and recipe/directions here.   It was actually after I'd made these and emailed photos to Nic that I first "chatted" with her.  She is one lovely lady and provides me with endless inspiration!  Being a bit more slap dash, I don't mold the nests in a bowl, but dollop large spoonfuls on to baking paper and then arrange in to a nest shape.
















~ Maple Muesli - recipe on my blog here packaged up in recylced jars with material scraps and twine on top.

~ Cards & tags made at home on publisher, one zig at a time ;-) and bagged in to cheap but sturdy brown paper bags. I think you should be able to use the picture below as a little Easter gift tag of your own - punch a little hole in it and thread through some twine and you are set.





Happy Easter!  I hope it's a safe and happy and healthy and fun weekend with your loved ones.

Love Amy xoxo

24 comments:

  1. Such gorgeous gifts Amy, they all look amazing!! x

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    1. Thanks Jody! I love the brown string packages you've done for gifts this year too!xoxo

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  2. LOVE! I have a post going up on what we made tomorrow and it's so different to what you made but now I want to do what you did! Might have to send J out to get some more goodies tomorrow. I ADORE the photos of the freckled eggs made by the kids. So wish we could have a baking date together with our small people. xxx

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    1. I can't wait to see what you've made lovely! I would LOVE a huge, messy, noisy cooking playdate with you guys!xoxo

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  3. Oh beautiful!!! So organised!!! Love it - though can't click on the maple muesli recipe (link not there?)

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    1. Oh thanks Yvette and thank you for the heads up re the link for the muesli - it's working now! :-)

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  4. Love it.

    Always do, they are so good.

    Well done on making yet another fabulous thing that I want to try out. I think I could do these ones but I may end up licking the spoon a little too much!

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    1. Thanks lovely. Believe it or not, aside from a teeny taste of the caramel and a teeny dot of the melted chocolate mixture to make sure it tasted ok, I haven't sampled any of these yet! I'm finally getting better at whistling while I work!!!!xoxo

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  5. Wow, what a gorgeous gift of Easter abundance! I love how you've packaged up the birds nests with the doily! I haven't made my own chocolates since high school but will give them a go next Easter (especially with my favourite salted caramel too!)and will definitely be looking up your maple muesli too!

    Nicole is lovely isn't she? I had the pleasure of meeting her in person last week - my highlight of the conference we were at!

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    1. Thank you Di! I'm completely obsessed with doilies!!! I hadn't made chocolates since I was a kid either - I was quite upset that my mum had thrown out all of the old chocolate molds! Glad it's a fun activity for my little ones now.

      I'm so jealous you made it to the conference - hopefully I'll meet you there next time!

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  6. Little Miss 3 had a lovely time with you and Master 3 making a mess of your house. This sous chef also enjoyed sampling the goods along the way for quality control purposes. You're one craft cooking chick.

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    1. Hee, thanks FF! Our house is very comfortable being messy! ;-)

      Thanks for the clean up - everything was tidier than when we began thanks to your kitchen cleaning handiwork...so swift in fact that I needed at least 3 spatulas as every time I turned around, another one was promptly packed in to the dishwasher! xoxo

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    2. I'm turning into my mother!

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    3. Half your luck!!!!

      Hope everyone enjoys their Easter gifts...even the grotty ones the kids licked!!! ;-)

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    4. Everyone adored their Easter gifts. Thank you. We even had some spare for the taste testers.
      PS. fYI the fried noodles held up even a week later. We kept the nests in the fridge and according to the taste testers there was no difference between one day and 6 days. The mini eggs had no chance of lasting that long but I'm sure they would have lasted too!

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    5. Oh yay! I'm glad everyone loved their gifts and glad you and your troop got to enjoy the extras! I knew those noodles would stay crispy forever!!! I finally sampled the salted caramel filled eggs - oh my goodness! It's lucky they were a bit time consuming to make otherwise I would have eaten hundreds!!! I have already started thinking of ideas for us to make next year...with all four of our kids! ;-)

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    6. Why bother with filling fiddely chocolate eggs when you can eat the salted caramel straight out of the dish with a spoon?
      ps looking forward to next year

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  7. Salted caramel filled Easter eggs? Yes please!

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  8. Those bird nests are fantastic. I am similarly obsessed with salted caramel - love it!

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  9. All of the shared recipes are just terrific,Surely everyone will love it,I will definitely put my hands in sweetness now

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