Easter Sunday DIY Chocolate Decorating Fun

As we’ve grown older, the excitement of Easter has gone from counting eggs to counting days off work.  With many houses around the country coming down with chocolate and Easter eggs over the next few days, why not get a little bit creative in the kitchen and make your own Easter chocolate creation.  Like most Easter’s, we welcome family to our home in Newcastle, and this year is no exception.  With young kids running about the place, still high from the sugar rush of their Easter chocolate hunt, finding activities to do on Easter Sunday can sometimes be a bit of a challenge.  This year, we’ve got just the solution for you.

No doubt there will be an abundance of Easter eggs in your house on Sunday morning, so grab them and begin to decorate them yourself, or go one step further and start to melt this chocolate to make your own creations.  We know you’re probably thinking why should you melt Easter eggs to make something different, but if you have a lot (and let’s face it, some homes have enough to keep you going for weeks) take a few of them and melt them to keep the kids entertained for a while.  Here’s all you need to do.

Easter Sunday Chocolate Treats:

What you’ll need:

• 400g chocolate (or 2 Easter eggs)
• 200g white chocolate
• Food colouring
• 4 Disposable pipping bags
• Greaseproof paper
• Mould for remoulding chocolate (optional)

Prep time: 15 minutes

Setting time: 5 minutes

Decorating time: as long as you want

What you need to do:

1. Preparing the chocolate shapes

You may choose to use ready made Easter eggs as your base but the kids might want to help you melt them down and shape in grease moulds or cookie cutters.  We’d recommend this option as it’s more fun.

To melt the chocolate break it up into small even pieces and set into a bowl.  Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the base of the bowl.  Gently melt the chocolate over this bain-marie until smooth and remove from heat.  Try to avoid boiling the water as this can affect the chocolate.

2. Make your chocolate moulds

Pour the melted chocolate into greased moulds (you can pick these up in most craft shops) or use cookie cutters if you have them, and place them onto greaseproof paper on a baking tray.  Once the chocolate is poured, allow them to cool for a few minutes.  You can speed this up by placing the moulds in the fridge. Once you have placed the moulds in the fridge, start to melt the white chocolate as this will be used for decorating.

3. Making the white chocolate for decorating

Melt the white chocolate in the same process as before (step 1).  Once melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool.  You will want to chocolate to be runny yet cool enough to be held in pipping bags.  When you are happy with the chocolate, divide it into 4 bowls and add a couple of drops of food colouring to 3 of the bowls (less is more with these drops).  We went for pink, blue and yellow as our colours (and left one white).  Mix the colour with the white chocolate and spoon into your pipping bags ready to use.

Quick tip: don’t cut the end of the pipping bag until you are ready to begin pipping with it.  Seal the other end of the bag with a close peg or food bag clip.

4. Decorate and enjoy

Once the chocolate moulds have set, remove the chocolate from the moulds and begin to decorate.  This is where the fun begins and you (and the kids) can get as creative as you want.  Remember, the chocolate will only be runny for a short period of time so don’t hang about.  Once the white chocolate has been added as a decoration, leave the moulds aside for 15-20 minutes until all the chocolate is set (or return to fridge), and then enjoy.  Both you and your kids will have a blast getting creative with these moulds.

Have you made your chocolate moulds or own Easter eggs?

We’d love to see some of your creations.  Share them with us over on our Facebook and Twitter pages.