Abigail’s easy ideas for decorating Easter eggs

The shops are heaving with foil-covered chocolate eggs in various sizes, my favourite white candy-coated ones, bunnies, and ducks. My stash is hidden at the bottom of my cupboard, ready to be hidden on Sunday morning. I’m not sure who is more excited: our dog who knows just how to carefully tear off the foil once he has sniffed them out, or me! My youngest son, who is 8, blurted out last night that he didn’t think that the Easter bunny was real. I think he could see the disappointment on my face because he came back a few minutes later to say, “Okay Mom, I think he's real!”

So apart from getting up at the crack of dawn on Sunday to hide the eggs and paint bunny footprints on the floor with our fingertips dipped into food colouring, I will also make our own bespoke edible treats. Every year I fill a big bowl with the white candy-coated eggs, on which I have stamped pretty bird designs using food colouring on a stamp pad.

I’m also going to paint a few with melted chocolate and roll them into silver edible cake balls for a bit of bling. I also love speckled eggs, so as a treat we will make some chocolate birds’ nests to fill with the eggs. To make the birds’ nests, break up some pretzel sticks and mix with melted chocolate. Spoon the mixture into a greased muffin tray and make a little well in each one using the back of a spoon. Chill until set, the remove from the pan and fill with speckled eggs.

I love making chocolate bark, too. Simply melt white, milk or dark chocolate and spread over a greased baking tray. Scatter with speckled eggs and chill until set, then break up into shards.

Happy Easter!