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If you've visited the shops recently you'll know that it's almost impossible to ignore the Easter displays. Paper chicks, hot cross buns and - most of all - masses and masses of chocolate are suddenly filling the shelves.

In the UK, 10% of the year's chocolate sales occur at Easter. It's the time when most of us finally throw the New Year diet out the window and indulge in all manner of sweet stuff - especially chocolate.

If you like your chocolate in egg form, you're in luck. For those of us with a craving to bite the head off a chocolate bunny or indulge in a Simnel cake, you might have to do some hunting around.

There's a world of difference between making your own Easter chocolate and buying it off the shelf. Mass produced factory chocolate is great for a quick fix, but it doesn't have quite the same flavour as when it's homemade.

If you're creating your own chocolate, you can be really greedy and make your eggs or bunnies as big as you like. You can also customise them by adding your favourite flavourings.

To have a go at creating your own Easter chocolate masterpieces, you'll need to buy some egg moulds from a kitchenware shop. These usually cost under a fiver, and can be washed and re-used each Easter.

You can also find moulds to make smaller, bite-sized chocolates in Easter shapes such as bunnies, flowers and chicks.

There's no law to say you have to use plain chocolate in the moulds - why not try a mixture of dark and white chocolate? Or you can experiment and use mint, butterscotch or even chilli chocolate.



Break some chocolate (the amount to use depends on the size of your moulds) into small pieces and melt it in a bain-marie (a bowl placed over a pan of hot, but not boiling, water).

Stir until the chocolate reaches a runny consistency. If you're using white chocolate, be careful not to overheat it

Pour enough chocolate into the mould to cover the bottom and gently tilt it to cover the whole mould with a thin layer chocolate. Tidy the edges of the mould with a damp paper towel if you make any mistakes.

Once it has set, repeat the process three times (pausing to let the mixture set each time) and then put in the fridge for 90 minutes. When the egg is done, you should be able to easily remove the mould and join the two halves together with some melted chocolate.

If you're using smaller moulds, simply fill up the mould with chocolate as if you were filling an ice-cube tray with water and leave in the fridge for at least an hour. You can decorate the tops with marzipan shapes (try carrots or smaller eggs) if you want to add some colour.

If you're completely sick of Easter eggs but still fancy some chocolate, try making some chocolate truffles with plain or dark chocolate. If you dust them with different coloured icing sugar and pile them in a basket they have an appropriate Easter appearance, but with a far more grown-up taste!

More Easter recipes
Easter egg nests
Easter fairy cakes
Babka (Polish Easter bread)
Simnel cake
Hot cross buns