My Easter Egg Tour

I was going to dedicate this week’s blog post to books about Easter, but after doing a little research I came to the conclusion that this was not a good subject for a post.  Most books about Easter are aimed at children and about half of them are about bunnies.

Yesterday afternoon I took a break from working on my third novel and went to the shops, where I came across a dizzying array of Easter Eggs. This inspired me to write this Easter Egg themed blog post.

As sales at Easter time make up 10% of UK chocolate spending for the whole year, it was no surprise that my local supermarket was seething with Easter eggs (see above), each struggling for attention amongst the crowded shelves.  Most chocolate brands merely provide their usual chocolate offering shaped as an egg, but now and again a marketing team comes up with an inspired idea like this Lindt Giant Carrot (see below).

Easter eggs are supposed to be an opportunity to indulge oneself after the privations of Lent, or at least that is what I thought prior to coming across these moo free easter eggs, which are dairy free, wheat free, gluten free, egg free and vegan (see below).  I call them Lent Continued Easter Eggs.  My condolences to any unfortunate children who will be receiving Lent Continued Easter Eggs this Easter.  I can only assume from the sickly looking bunny on the box that moo free eggs aren’t particularly appetising.

The Church of England often laments the loss of religious traditions in the face of relentless consumerism.  However all is not lost.  Below is The Real Easter Egg.  These can be found in stores across the UK.  Not only is the story of Jesus depicted on the sides and back of the box, but the chocolate is of the fair trade variety and a percentage of sales go to charity.

For those of us emaciated from our Lenten fasts might I suggest a gargantuan Easter egg (see below).  If camouflaged with foliage this Easter Egg could masquerade as part of the scenery in an Easter egg hunt.  While I am on the subject of Easter Egg hunts, did you know that the World’s biggest Easter egg hunt was in Florida in 2007, when close to 10,000 children set out to find 501,000 Easter Eggs.  This I found surprising considering Florida’s large gator population.                                                                                             

For those unwilling to dine on the chocolate of the proletariat there is the Charbonnel et Walker milk chocolate egg with pink mare de champagne truffle (see below).

There’s always one.  Not content with being oval, this Ladurée pretentious petal egg (see below) has embraced a postmodern deconstructed look.  It is decorated with crystallised rose, jasmine and violet petals, garnished with dark, milk and praline chocolate figurines and bells.  Cost: £72.50.

Did you know that the World’s most popular egg-shaped chocolate is Cadbury’s Creme Egg. Workers at the Cadbury factory in Birmingham produce 1.5 million of them everyday.  I am a big fan of Cadbury Creme Eggs.  Enjoy your Easter Eggs. Happy Easter.