Let's be honest, I don't need an excuse to eat chocolate. I mean honestly, it's like my whole family turn into enablers at Easter-time; I get showered with so much chocolate even I struggle to keep up. Struggle, but manage. I do have unnatural chocolate-consuming capabilities, even if I do say so myself.
Anyway, back on topic.
Oh, wait, chocolate IS the topic.
That's right folks, it's Easter and that means it's chocolate all round!
This can pose quite the dilemma for those looking for a vegan option. Don't get me wrong, they are out there. Dark chocolate Easter eggs do exist, and some of them are vegan. They're just fairly few and far between, and often not very exciting. So, I decided to make mama siddalee some vegan eggs from some adorable little moulds I'd seen in Paperchase (were £4, now £2. Typical. Go and stock up now!). This was...not quite as simple as I'd envisioned.
I used dark chocolate drops for the egg shells as they melt so easy and were the cheapest vegan option (necessary when you're buying as many hundreds of grams of chocolate as I was!). I made some hollow eggs, some filled with peanut butter & chocolate and some filled with mint chocolate (melted Green&Blacks peppermint fondant dark chocolate).
I'm not going to lie, the process was long and labor-intensive, not least because I foolishly felt certain I would be brilliant at this as I used to make eggs loads as a kid with my nan. Wrong. Here are some tips and pointers for using chocolate moulds I wish I'd known before I began my egg-making journey, as opposed to discovering them halfway through (oops)...
1. It's better to build up your chocolates in thin layers. Fill your mould with a thin later of melted chocolate and, when this has hardened, add more chocolate if desired.
2. If using a mould that makes two halves, leave the mould to stand upside down on some baking parchment - this is more likely to help a thicker edge to form which you will wish you had when it comes to sticking the two halves together, believe me.
3. Have a heated baking tray at the ready when it comes to sticking your halves together - you can slightly melt the edges of your halves as opposed to adding chocolate to stick them, as I did.
I added a bit of oil to the chocolate that was filling the eggs so that they didn't harden completely and break any teeth. They went from saucepan to fridge pretty quickly and changed temperatures a lot, hence the slightly 'dusty' look. Overall though, they were tasty and cute and I think something homemade just shows that little bit more thought, which everyone always appreciates when it comes to gifts!
Mmmm, egg-cellent!