Give Me A Grin For Easter 2012

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh – IT IS CHOCOLATE SEASON MY FRIENDS

No joke I get a little bit excited (and a little bit hyper) because

1. There are chocolate bunnies, eggs, carrots, designs etc. as far as the eye can see in every window display
2. Easter Warehouses open which are long endless rows of chocolate!
3. I am eating chocolate as I type

Besides chocolate , I love Easter because

1. All you amazing bloggers start going festive on me and I devour through the screen all your decadent delights (filled with chocolate – oops how did that sneak in there…)
2. Easter hat parades, bunnies and cute lil’ chickens make random appearances making everyone smile
3. I get to enjoy the holidays for Easter break – YAY!

Now this is a long post – there is so much to get through and so much time… good stuff right

Where should, I start, hmmmm *picks up pencil and begins to tap it on the desk*

Tap…. tap… tap… EUREKA!

I am going to get you into the Easter spirit. Already claim you have Easter spirit? Doing Lent, eating chocolate, wearing bunny ears, you are good? I don’t think so…
What is Easter without awesome, gorgeous, wish-you-could-eat-your-screen pictures? Nothing, I agree,  absolutely!

So to get that Easter-vibe in the air, I give you a small amassed collection of amazing Easter creations I have seen and want to share! While I have seen many, no joke, these ones just made me squeal like a giddy five year old kid

WARNING: Much chocolate is involved. Have a chocolate bar handy. Go Bake Yourself will not be held responsible for any heart palpitations.

In no particular order, allow me to present:

1. Cinna-bunnies by the magnificent Seaweed & Sassafras (cool name right??). Cute puns galore, awesome presentation and delicious cinnamon flavours, these bun(nie)s would definitely adorn an Easter breakfast table!

This picture is directly from Seaweed & Sassafras

2. Mini Bundt Easter S’mores, found on the incredible This Sweet Wife. For all you campers who will be staring out at the stars at Easter time. this is definitely the most decadent Easter recipe for you! And for those sitting at home, rugged up in front of the fire as Autumn sets in, I guess you can try it too – you know you want to

This picture is directly from This Sweet Wife

3. Chocolate-Covered Cookie Dough Bunnies by a newly discovered The Scrumptious Pumpkin. I am a lazy baker. I love taking the easy way i.e. eating the dough instead of the baked product – Celebrate Easter the relaxed way with this beautifully designed, cute like crazy bunny treats!

This picture is directly from The Scrumptious Pumpkin

4. The Happy Spring Cake Cookie Delight by spectacular and one of my closest blogging buddies Bam’s Kitchen is one to be drooled over and marvelled at. She has two sons. One wanted cookies. One wanted cake. So what does this genius do? Put them all into one superb, dripping-with-Easter-spirit cookie cake, bien sur!!

This picture is directly from Bam’s Kitchen

5. Easter Basket Cupcakes from the wonderful Dinner, Dishes, and Dessert are exactly as they sound. Sugary edible baskets carrying chocolate with the cutest and most adorable colours ever. Yep, I know I pinched myself too. Aren’t they lovely???

This picture is directly from Dinner, Dishes and Desserts

6. Mais Queso (Corn And Cheese) Ice Cream Nests from the much revered blog Pinay In Texas are for the adventurous, the daring and the totally food crazy. Chocolate cups, cheese, ice cream? Really can Easter get any more delicious? What a genius creation!

This picture is directly from Pinay In Texas

I wish I could show you lots more of the wonderful creations I have had the pleasure to drool over but if I did, this post would go on forever (and it is pretty close to doing that already )

I will just leave you to two more links in case you have not been satisfied

• A collection of 85 Easter recipes from Brown Eyed Baker
• Easter Dessert OR Breakfast Recipes from Gingerbread Bagels (hehehe… evil post )

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Taking a little break (do not worry, I will be obviously returning to food ) I would just like to give a grand shout out to these three absolutely marvellous bloggers who have each awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award – I appreciate it so much

1. Heidi @ The Young Grasshopper – A new blogger I have met who has such vibrant personality and food to match!
2. Lacy @ New York City Eats – A definite sweet-toothed foodie friends whose pictures may just be the most mouthwatering I have ever seen!
3. Natalie @ Food Atick – Too sweet, too good at baking and cooking and too awesome is best description!

You can find the rules at any of these wonderful blog posts or here – since I have already told you 6 things about my Easter love, I think they have been fulfilled

My 7th can be my earliest Easter memory is in Kindergarten, when teachers use to draw bunny footsteps while we went to recess and when we came back, there were eggs on our desks

I now pass on this honourable award to 15 bloggers – they are food-loving, genuine, and totally awesome! Congrats my friends

• Jackie @ This Sweet Wife
• Delicio8
• Le Delicieux
• Terra @ Cafe Terra
• Name @ Just One Cookbook
• Cucina49
• Chung-Ah @ Damn Delicious
• Kelly @ Kelly’s Retro Kitchen Arts
• Love For Food
• Grace @ A Southern Grace
• A Pug In The Kitchen
• Yummy Chunklet
• Filing Away Cupcakes
• Becky @ The Baker Becky
• Asmita @ Compulsive Foodie

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Now, where were we? Yes, chocolate, Easter and more
Last year in my food tech classes, we made the most soft and fluffy hot cross buns I have ever had in my life. Wow were they delicious!

This year, I do not have the luxury of relying on school for my Easter baking. Time to take things (chocolate) into my own hands! I always adored the idea of making nests at Easter filled with chocolate eggs. Slowly but surely, an idea progressed in my head which involved the goodness of everything! Chocolate, Easter and a lot of patriotic Australian foodie spirit

Ladies, Gentlemen, Bunnies, Chickens and Children, I  present to you: A Chocolate Pavlova Bird’s Nest

A soft, cracking, melt-in-mouth CHOCOLATE flavoured meringue ‘bowl’ so to speak, with a double melted chocolate cereal nest filling, topped with chocolate birds eggs and served with a side of pretty presentation

Why did I make a pavlova nest for my Easter eggs? Because I had never seen it before. It gives me a little incentive

I can’t even begin to tell you much fun these were to make. First I used this recipe from the infallible Taste.com
Beat a little egg, add in some sugar, beat for those peaks a little more and then WHOOSH, add in that sweet lovely cocoa powder
Just a little tip – my baking was done in 20-25 minutes so just be careful!

Next up – shaping
I made 1/2 the recipe (serving one ) so I wasn’t able to but if you have enough meringue, this would best be served using this awesome technique

Otherwise use my less awesome and amateur technique

1. Draw a circle on a sheet of baking paper
2. Place on a baking sheet
3. Spoon your meringue into an icing bag, using a thick round nozzle at the end
4. Pipe around the circle and fill the centre
5. Using the back of a small spoon push meringue up the sides from the middle until the middle is thin and there are semi-walls visible on your meringue
6. Carefully place in oven and BAKE – do not look back

Donut meringue? It is a thought…

Another little tip – let cool COMPLETELY! Do not even attempt to lift it off the baking sheet until it. is. cold (otherwise the bottom comes off and it is all rather dreadful to be honest!)

Moving on…

The filling. Oh my gosh, this filling is so yum. Definitely wouldn’t mind having it for breakfast instead of milk in my cereal
I got my recipe from here – I would say use 1/2 the recipe for making a whole recipe of these meringues
Did I change anything – I am so surprised you keep asking!
I substituted half the dark chocolate with white chocolate since it was lying around and the filling came out beautifully! So addictive *and hence the double chocolate*
Also, you can use any cereal but Cornflakes or/and rice bubbles (rice krispies) give the best effect!

Then just go crazy with decoration (Like I told you at the beginning of this post, those chickens are the most adorable thing in the world!)

And there you go – your very own Aussie bird nest! Didn’t know magpies kept their eggs in pavlovas down under? You do now

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Lastly my friends, I am going on holiday for a week this Friday! And while I know I am going to have tons of fun, I would just like you to know I will not be food-blogging or even participating in the foodie community time to time, mainly because I won’t have internet access 24/7! So please do not be upset, I am a regular commenter and I apologise in advance (I promise to come back and comment!)

Also, mentioning my return… my exams will be commencing (half yearly for yr 11) so although my breaks will be cooking and posting, my replying to comments will be slower than it even is now *sorry bout that* so again, letting you know in advance

Last thing, I promise, I have gotten comments claiming it is hard for people to read this blog on a reader like iPad – if you switch it to Mobile View on any reader, you should be absolutely fine. If it still does not work, just let me know and I will put Frangipanis in another way

Wait, no sorry I lied

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! Hope you all have a fun-family-filled chocoholic Easter overflowing with good times and great foods
Have a wonderful Easter break everyone and I shall see you on my return with lots more recipes to share

Lots of Love