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Along with chocolate and bunnies, Easter weekend brings with it time – time for food, time for family and time for fun!
As a four-day holiday weekend, it’s the perfect opportunity to organise a get-together and share some laughs over a long lunch of your favourite Easter foods.
In the days before, spend some time making homemade sweet treats and upcycling things from around the house to create our cute bunny baskets, which are perfect for the traditional backyard Easter egg hunt.
Add that extra element to your occasion with a beautiful Easter-themed table setting. Keep the look and feel sophisticated with neutral dinner plates and serveware, then bring the magic and whimsy with bunny-adorned items, plus quirky styling hacks like our napkin folding.
A cohesive colour scheme will help tie everything together, with pastel combinations being the go-to for the holiday weekend.
Hot cross buns
MAKES 16 PREP & COOK TIME 1 HOUR 25 MINUTES (+ STANDING & COOLING TIME)
Ingredients
1 tablespoon (14g) dried yeast
¼ cup (55g) caster sugar
1 ½ cups (375ml) warm milk
4 cups (600g) Market Kitchen Plain Flour
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
60g butter
1 egg
1 ½ cups (240g) Market Kitchen Sultanas
FLOUR PASTE
½ cup (75g) Market Kitchen Plain Flour
2 teaspoons caster sugar
1/3 cup (80ml) water, approximately
GLAZE
1 tablespoon caster sugar
¾ teaspoon gelatine
1 tablespoon water
Combine yeast, sugar and milk in a small bowl or jug. Cover; stand in a warm place for 10 minutes or until mixture is frothy.
Sift flour and spices into large bowl; rub in butter. Stir in yeast mixture, egg and sultanas, mixing to a soft, sticky dough. Cover; stand in a warm place for 45 minutes or until dough has doubled in size.
Grease a 23cm-square slab cake pan or deep 23cm-square cake pan.
Turn dough onto floured surface and knead for 5 minutes or until smooth. Divide dough into 16 pieces; knead into balls. Place balls into pan. Cover; stand in a warm place for 10 minutes or until buns have risen to top of pan.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan.
To make flour paste, combine flour and sugar in cup. Gradually blend in enough of the water to form a smooth, firm paste. Place in a piping bag fitted with a small plain tube. Pipe crosses on buns.
Bake buns for 20 minutes. When cooked, turn buns, top-side up, onto a wire rack.
To make glaze, stir all the ingredients in a small saucepan over heat, without boiling, until sugar and gelatine are dissolved. Brush hot buns with hot glaze. Cool on wire rack.
Choc-mint crackle baskets
MAKES 12 PREP AND COOK TIME 1 HOUR 5 MINUTES (+ REFRIGERATION TIME)
Ingredients
2 cups (70g) rice bubbles
½ cup (80g) icing sugar
½ cup (40g) Market Kitchen Desiccated Coconut
2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
125g Kremelta, melted, cooled slightly
½ cup (60ml) cream
250g white chocolate, chopped finely
1 teaspoon peppermint essence
green food colouring
6 strawberry and cream sticks, halved lengthways (see tip)
50g chocolate of choice
Line a small, 12-hole (1/3 cup/ 80ml) muffin pan with paper patty cases.
In a large bowl, combine rice bubbles, icing sugar, coconut and cocoa powder. Stir in Kremelta until well mixed. Spoon the mixture evenly among paper cases – press around the bases and sides to make 1cm-thick baskets. Chill in refrigerator until firm.
In a small saucepan, heat cream until almost boiling. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Set aside for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth – add peppermint essence and a few drops of food colouring. Pour evenly into baskets.
Halve sticks to make 12 (2mm thick x 8cm lengths). Position on each basket to form handles and push into green filling to secure. Chill for 20 minutes or until firm.
Decorate baskets with mini eggs.
Table setting
Go for a pastel colour theme in your table decorations to help tie the look together. These shades look great when paired with natural elements and simple white dinnerware.
Bunny ear napkins
Fold a napkin into a triangle. Starting at the peak of the triangle, fold over towards the long edge. These folds are about 3cm wide.
Keep folding until you get to the long edge, so you have one long piece.
Bend napkin in half to make a “U” shape. Place an egg inside the “U”; blunt end of egg at the bottom.
Use twine or ribbon to tie the napkin snugly around the top of an egg cup and egg.
Splay out the two napkin ends to make ears.
Easter bunny baskets
Recycle empty juice cartons into these cute bunny baskets
You will need
Clean, empty 1-litre milk or juice carton (per basket)
White felt square
Scraps of pink and black felt
Craft glue
Joggle eyes
2 white chenille sticks
Stapler
White pompom (optional)
Cut the carton down so that it is 8cm high, leaving a 2cm-wide “handle” in the centre of two opposite sides.
Cut a piece of white felt to fit around the basket and glue it in place, slightly overlapping the edges at the centre back.
From milk carton scraps, cut two ear shapes and cover with white felt. Cut smaller inner ear shapes from pink felt and glue to ears.
Glue the completed ears to the inside upper front edge of the basket.
Glue on joggle eyes. Cut a nose from pink felt and glue in place. Bend each chenille stick in half and glue on either side of the nose. Cut mouth from black felt and glue in place.
Overlap handles at top and staple them together, forming a loop. Cover handle with white felt. Add pompom tail at back, if desired.
For more Easter inspiration head to The Warehouse.
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