The chocolate part of the Easter weekend may not be over…

Hotel Chocolat has a half price sale on Easter eggs and Easter chocolate.

The perfect way to try the eggs you wanted but didn’t get or to get more of the chocolate you loved.

Hotel Chocolat has a commitment to freshness so the chocolate and chocolate Easter eggs have a shorter shelf live than most other chocolate – so they have to sell it.

You can see all the sale items here.

A fun milk chocolate Easter egg, hand decorated on the outside, studded with chocolate beans and popping candy on the inside, the fantastic Crackletastic Egg from Chococo.

The egg shell is decorated with stripes of white chocolate; in grouped parallel lines in a similar layout to the Union Jack and where the lines cross over in the centre of the egg, both front and back, there is a milk chocolate button decorated with a star pattern, the domed side of the button is attached to the egg and the patterned flat side is on show.

Chococo have used a blend of Criollo and Trinitario cocoa beans to create a wonderful, 43% cocoa, milk chocolate with a beautifully rich flavour, you really feel like you have eaten good chocolate!

The chocolate beans inside add a splash of colour, and some extra texture to the chocolate but the real star is the popping candy. It pops and cracks as you bite through it and gentle fizzes away while you enjoy the chocolate.

If you have never tried popping candy in an Easter egg, or in chocolate for that matter, try this egg! Space Dust, Cosmic Dust, Pop Rocks, Fizz Wiz and other popping candy brands are flavoured or flavour enhanced, the popping candy Chococo use is flavour neutral, so it does not affect the delicious chocolate, it just adds some fun.

The Crackletastic Egg is an updated version of the Chococo’s Fizzing Fun Easter Egg, the chocolate has more cocoa content, up 2% from 41% to 43%, which gives the milk chocolate more flavour. The outside of the egg is a little more unisex, making it ideal for boys or girls, and I personally think it has more popping candy inside.

All Chococo Easter eggs are made in England, the chocolate beans use natural flavours, the star pattern is of course edible and the chocolate, in this egg, is made with cocoa beans from Venezuela.

Great chocolate with a good flavour and a fun side, really worth trying.

£12.95 inc P&P, 175g, from Chococo in Dorset.

A Green & Black’s milk chocolate Easter egg, in blue foil, and two full sized Green & Black’s chocolate bars in the same box, the Milk Collection Easter Egg.

Thicker than standard eggs, but not as thick as Extra Thick eggs, Green and Black’s thick-shelled Easter egg are in a class of their own.

With a darker style of milk chocolate compared to other companies, Green & Black’s use more cocoa mass, 37% cocoa, in their milk chocolate Easter Eggs which gives the chocolate a richer and more intense taste.

The cocoa content varies in their milk chocolate, adjusted to suit the style and added flavours of the chocolate, the chocolate bars included with the egg highlight this perfectly with one bar being 34% cocoa and the other 40% cocoa.

The two full size, 100g, Green & Black’s chocolate bars included with the egg are:

• Milk Chocolate and Butterscotch, with crisp and crunchy pieces of organic butterscotch, 34% cocoa.
• Milk Chocolate Raisin & Hazelnut, the distinct flavour of raisin with the savoury texture of hazelnuts, 40% cocoa.

The Easter egg and chocolate bars are all Soil Association certified organic and the all bare the The Fairtrade Foundation logo. The cardboard is obtained from FSC certified sources, the foil is 100% recyclable and vegetable based inks to reduce environmental damage. None of Green & Black’s Easter eggs have plastic fillers and the boxes use a reduced cardboard style, gives the eggs a rather stylish triangle shaped box.

The Green & Blacks Milk Collection Easter egg is one of the eggs included Green & Black’s Ultimate Easter Egg Hamper.

£10.99 for a 180g Easter egg and two 100g bars, 380g in total.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Organic and Fairtrade.

Well technically it is Hotel Chocolat’s biggest Easter egg and it is one of two massive Ostrich Eggs, so it is in fact Hotel Chocolat’s biggest milk chocolate Easter egg. Either way it is huge!

Previously known as The Rocky Road to Caramellow Ostrich Egg and the giant MILK Ostrich egg, this year it is “The Classic Ostrich Easter Egg” and it is just as big and tempting.

This egg is one of the two extra large Easter eggs from the Hotel Chocolat Easter range, these immense Easter eggs, measure 285mm tall (that’s just under eleven inches, in old money) and are called Ostrich Easter eggs because they are about the size and weight of real Ostrich eggs!

The Classic Ostrich Easter Egg has two chunky chocolate shell halves, both made from 40% cocoa milk chocolate, the egg halves are then covered with more chocolate chunks, puffed rice crispies, cookie pieces and chunks of white chocolate, and the covered in more chocolate and decorated.

This big Easter egg also comes with a selection of twenty-one chocolates inside the egg box; presented as a layer of chocolates, like you would get in a round chocolate box, in ten different flavours.

• Salted Soft Caramel: a crisp shell of milk chocolate with caramel coloured dot on top, and inside soft oozing sea salted caramel.
• Tawny Port: a milk chocolate ganache with a splash of port, Hotel Chocolat’s Tawny Port, in a dome of chocolate. Contains alcohol.
• Choc Chip Cookie: Hotel Chocolat’s version of a chocolate chip cookie, milk chocolate with whole hazelnuts and cookie pieces.
• Coffee & Walnut: a classic combination of flavours with a chocolaty twist, a walnut praline with coffee and hazelnut.
• Simple White Truffle: white chocolate with vanilla in a white chocolate shell, simple yet elegant.

• Sticky Toffee: toffee, cream and butter mixed together to create a soft sticky toffee in a milk chocolate shell.
• Billionaire’s Shortbread: soft caramel with crunchy cookies and smooth praline, millionaire’s shortbread in chocolate!
• Florentine Isabelle: a bed of milk chocolate filled with hazelnut praline and topped with a chewy honey & almond florentine.
• Dizzy Praline: Hotel Chocolat’s smooth hazelnut praline in milk chocolate with a dizzy swirl decoration on top.
• Simply Milk Truffle: a creamy milk chocolate truffle with a milk chocolate shell, one of the most popular chocolates from Hotel Chocolat.

All of these chocolates are from Hotel Chocolat Selectors range, so if you have a favourite you can buy more.

Alongside the two giant egg halves and the selection of chocolates are six, gold foiled, mini eggs, bringing the weight of the egg up to very impressive 1.1kg.

Stylishly presented in a round hatbox style box, with a hand tied ribbon – this really is a chocolate Easter egg to excite.

£70.00, 1.1kg of luxury chocolates from Hotel Chocolat.

Labelled: Vegetarian.

The egg is displayed clear box with a minimal design, two bold pink bands top and bottom, so you can see the beautiful egg inside from almost every angle.

The shell of the egg is used as canvas for a colourful spring meadow scene; with blues skies, white clouds and an orange butterfly flying over the fields, which gives the Easter egg its name, and the egg also has its own plinth so it stands up by itself, which is also made of chocolate.

Normally with chocolate eggs I have to resist the urge to smash or break them open to sample the chocolate, but this egg is a little different I actually felt bad about spoiling it. But it did open with a very good pop….

The chocolate is comparatively quite thick; it is actually two layers of chocolate one on top of the other. The Paul Wayne Gregory Butterfly Easter egg is available in dark and milk chocolate, and I didn’t know which I had until I cracked it open, this is a milk chocolate egg as it turns out.

Once the egg is cracked open, the wonderful aromas inside are released.

Having never tried, any, of Paul Wayne Gregory’s previously I was a little worried the egg might be all art and no cocoa, but I am very, very pleased to proven wrong. The chocolate has a good cocoa flavour, 38% cocoa, without being over powering and the taste is rather superb, mellow in the mouth but with a good strength behind it, beautifully smooth and not overly sweet, incredibly moreish.

In fact I have to say this is probably the best, unflavoured, milk chocolate I have tried this year.

A must try Easter egg for chocolate lovers and connoisseurs, and if the design does not appeal there are three more eggs, also in dark or milk chocolate, and a milk chocolate Easter egg flavoured with mango available from Paul Wayne Gregory’s online shop.

£24.95, 320g of British chocolate art on excellent milk chocolate.

1. Lindt Heavenly Hazelnut Easter Egg
2. Lindt Lindor Easter Eggs
3. Lindt Gold Bunny Eggs
4. Children’s Easter Eggs
5. Summary
   • Alcohol Free

Lindt are probably better known for their novelty chocolates, the Lindt Gold Bunny at Easter and the gold animals at Christmas, and Lindt Lindor chocolate truffles, but they also make other chocolates and it is nice to see this reflected by their new Easter egg the Heavenly Hazelnut Egg.

The Lindt Heavenly Hazelnut Egg is one of three Easter eggs which have been added to the Lindt range for Easter 2013.

Lindt Heavenly Hazelnut Easter Egg

The Lindt Heavenly Hazelnut Easter Egg is now the largest egg in the range, measuring approximately 160mm tall and 120mm wide, and is presented in a bright yellow box with windows so you can see the ribbon tied egg inside. A milk chocolate egg is rolled in crushed hazelnuts and covered in another layer of chocolate to create, a rather beautiful looking, luxury Easter egg.

A heavenly smooth milk chocolate egg, encrusted with roasted Piedmont hazelnuts then generously coated with a final chocolate layer to create [Lindt's] thickest, most decadent Easter Egg yet.

Even though the Lindt Heavenly Hazelnut Easter egg is new for 2013 it has already been approved by Good Housekeeping Institute, with a score of 84/100 ranking it second out of 193 eggs!

£19.99, 350g of luxury Lindt Eater egg, available from The Chocolate Trading Company.

Lindt Lindor Easter Eggs

The biggest of the Lindt Lindor Easter Eggs is the Luxury Lindt Egg, a milk chocolate egg in wrapped gold foil with a red ribbon round the egg and nine Lindt Lindor mini eggs, presented in a red box.

Also new for Easter 2013 is the Limited Edition Lindor Egg, a gold foiled milk chocolate egg with Lindt Lindor balls in classic milk, Irish Cream flavour & Stracciatella. The Limited Edition Lindt Lindor egg is the only Lindt Lindor egg in a green box.

The two smaller Lindt Lindor eggs both have milk chocolate eggs, in gold foil, and a selection of Lindt Lindor mini eggs in the box. The gold Lindt Lindor Easter Egg has an assorted selection chocolate eggs and the red Lindt Lindor Easter Egg has milk chocolate mini eggs.

Lindt Gold Bunny Easter Eggs

There are two Lindt Gold Bunny Eggs, both with a milk chocolate eggs and mini Lindt Gold Bunnies.

The Luxury Gold Bunny Egg has two small Lindt Gold Bunnies, both with ribbons and bells round their necks, £10.29 for 260g from The Chocolate Trading Company.

And the Gold Bunny Egg has three mini Lindt Gold Bunnies, £5.99 for 125g from Selfridges.

Children’s Easter Eggs

Another new Lindt Easter egg for 2013 is the Egg & Chick Easter egg.

A gold foiled egg with a cute foil wrapped chick, both made from Lindt milk chocolate. The egg and chick are presented in a tented box, which is colourfully decorated for Easter, and they both stick out of the packing slightly from cut out holes.

Lindt’s Easter Fun Egg & Chick egg is £4.49 from The Chocolate Trading Company, 105g.

Lindt Easter Eggs

Lindt Easter eggs from large to small, made with Belgian chocolate from Lindt’s Master Chocolatier.

In summary:

• The largest Easter egg from Lindt is the Lindt Heavenly Hazelnut Easter Egg.
• There are four Lindt Lindor Easter Eggs to choose from, in two different sizes and a variety of flavours.
• There are two Lindt Gold Bunny Eggs, large and small, both with Lindt Gold Bunnies inside the box.
• New for Easter 2013 are the Lindt Heavenly Hazelnut Easter Egg, the Limited Edition Lindor Egg and the Lindt Easter Fun Egg & Chick Egg.
• All of the milk chocolate eggs contain 30% cocoa. Truffles and chocolates vary, depending on chocolate type.
• All of the above Lindt Easter eggs are labelled alcohol free.

New for Easter 2013, the ‘The Connoisseur’ egg is cast in dark chocolate from the Rabot 1745 collection; a collection of chocolates, mainly chocolate bars, which use and celebrate rare cocoa from around the world to create pure chocolate. Hotel Chocolat’s Rabot 1745 range replaced the Purist range.

The extra thick dark chocolate Easter egg is one of seven Extra Thick Chocolate Easter Eggs from Hotel Chocolat’s Easter range. One half of the extra thick shell is made from 82% cocoa dark chocolate from Ecuador and the other half from 66% cocoa dark chocolate from Madagascar.

Inside the egg is a selection of Hotel Chocolat Egglets, mini egg shaped chocolates, twelve dark chocolate eggs in four different flavours:

• Habanero Chilli Truffle Egglet: a Madagascan dark chocolate shell, 66% cocoa, with a habanero chilli and dark chocolate ganache inside.
• Chuao Pecan Praline Egglet: a blend of 70% cocoa Chuao dark chocolate, caramel and pecan creates a smooth praline inside a Venezuelan dark chocolate shell.
• Hacienda Iara Praline Egglet: a super smooth praline encased in 82% cocoa dark chocolate shell, from Ecuador’s Hacienda Iara.
• 66% Sambirano Truffle Egglet: a chocolate truffle Egglet with a mix of Trinitario and Criollo from Madagascar’s Sambirano Valley, 66% cocoa dark chocolate.

Presented in a round, black and gold, ribbon tied, hat box style box. A perfect Easter egg for high cocoa content chocolate lovers.

£30.00, 390g of dark chocolate from Hotel Chocolat.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Alcohol Free.

A milk chocolate Easter egg from the Highlands of Scotland, handmade from organic chocolate, hand decorated and presented in a mountain shaped box!

cocoa mountain are an award winner chocolatier, with two cafes in Balnakeil and Auchterarder, and their 2013 Easter range has seven Easter eggs in total, this is one of three hand-decorated eggs, the organic milk Easter egg.

All of the hand-decorated eggs have different designs in an assortment of stripes, dots, splats and lines, so each egg is individual and because they are decorated by hand they are also unique. Mine had white chocolate diagonal stripes on the bottom half of the egg, which contrasts well with the milk chocolate shell.

The chocolate itself has the satisfying snap when you break it and a unique and interesting flavour, quite sweet with hint of nuts, and a sharpness I can’t quite but my finger on, the aftertaste is fascinating – like you have just drunk hot chocolate, warm yet sweet.

All of the Easter eggs from cocoa mountain are presented in pyramid style boxes, three sided pyramids called tetrahedra, with windows in the front so you can see the eggs inside.

The other two hand-decorated eggs are the dark chocolate, Hand-decorated Organic Dark Chocolate Easter eggs, and the white chocolate, Hand-decorated Organic White Chocolate Easter eggs.

cocoa mountain Easter eggs are sold in pairs or fours, the prices include UK postage and packaging.

£12.00 for two 85g eggs, available from cocoa mountain.

Labelled: Organic and Vegetarian.

A treat for a Maltesers lover a luxury Malteaster egg! A hollow milk chocolate egg with four cute Maltesers Malteaster bunnies, with big ears.

The “Malteaster” egg Maltesers at Easter.

The Maltesers you know and adore reshaped into cute Malteaster Bunnies with a standard milk chocolate Easter egg, hollow and foil wrapped.

The bunnies have the same crunchy centre as Maltesers with the same chocolate round the outside, but the bunnies are larger and the chocolate is thicker. The Malteaster Bunnies are quite chunky and less crisp and the flavour is denser than the normal Maltesers, I actually prefer the flavour of the bunnies.

The egg is available from most supermarkets and online, and you can buy the Bunny Bars separately in most supermarkets and shops. Chocolatebuttons sell the Malteaster egg and other Maltesers eggs as single eggs or in bulk boxes of four (with a bulk buy discount) and they also sell the Malteaster Bunnies in packs of four or large boxes of thirty-two.

The egg weighs 198g and each of the bunnies 29g, 314g in total.

“No actual Maltesers were hurt during the making of these Bunnies”

£9.75, 314g or four Malteaster Maltesers Easter Eggs for £29.50.

Labelled: Vegetarian.

Chococo’s lemon meringue Easter egg, a milk chocolate egg covered in a layer of white chocolate with lemon and meringue inside.

All of Chococo’s Easter eggs are presented in bright and bold Easter egg boxes, in the Chococo colours with windows in the side so you can see the egg inside, these windows really show off the outside of the lemon meringue egg, drizzles and splats of bright yellow, naturally coloured white, chocolate on a white chocolate background.

As you open the box you get a gentle aroma of sweet lemon mixed with warm cocoa.

Chococo make their Easter eggs in layers, layers of milk chocolate covered by a layer of white chocolate, because of this when you crack open the egg it tends to shatter and splinter a little, but it does give the shell a texture I adore. The inside of the egg is packed with pieces of meringue and strips of candied lemon.

I am a huge fan of tarte au citron and really sour, citric acid, sweets. Because of the aroma and the name of the egg I was expecting the Chococo lemon meringue Easter egg to be acidy and sour combined with very sweet, but it is completely wrong. The balance of flavours is spot on, creamy white chocolate with 43% cocoa milk chocolate, mixed with sweet and crisp meringue and the gentle flavour of lemon from the chewy candied lemon, a light and refreshing combination of texture and flavour.

A light Easter egg which tastes just as good as it looks, fun and fresh.

£12.95, 175g, available direct from Chococo.

Delicious Booja Booja chocolate truffles flavoured with banana and toffee, dusted with cocoa powder and presented in a beautiful papier-mâché egg shaped box.

Banoffee Toffee replaced the Flambed Banana flavour in Booja Booja’s chocolate truffle range.

Booja Booja Easter eggs are just as much about the papier-mâché eggs as the chocolate truffles inside, each egg is unique. Handmade and hand painted by artisans of the Persian Dowry in Kashmir, India.

For more information of the Persian Dowry company and how buying Booja-Booja Easter eggs supports the artists, and their families, please read the Booja Chronicles on the Booja-Booja website.

As I said before each egg is unique so the images are just for illustration, making it a rather fun luck-dip Easter egg surprise.

The rather fabulous organic chocolate truffles are dark chocolate ganache, made with 56% cocoa, with sticky toffee and banana, making banoffee, and dusted with cocoa powder – which gives a sharp bitterness before the creamy melt in the mouth centre.

Made in Norfolk, UK all Booja-Booja chocolate truffles are organic, vegan, dairy and gluten free.

£10.69, 35g of chocolate truffles and a unique keepsake egg, available from the ethicalsuperstore.com

Labelled: Organic, Vegetarian, Vegan, Dairy Free, Gluten Free and GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) Free.

This cute egg makes me rather nostalgic as it reminds me of Easter in Germany, good quality chocolate decorated with a continental feel, even down the little yellow chick in the window.

The Oeuf Maisonnette Easter egg, which means “Egg House” in French, is a milk chocolate egg styled to look like a bird-house, a hole is cute into the egg and the birdhouse is built inside, the egg is decorated with little shutters a window box and even a little chimney at the top, an adorable egg. Along with the egg is a selection of mini chocolate Easter eggs, in multi coloured foils.

Made by The Chocolate Trading Company, creators of gourmet chocolate and luxury chocolate Easter eggs. Comes in a smart Chocolate Trading Company bespoke box and not plastic.

The bird house Easter egg is available in milk chocolate and dark chocolate and two sizes, each with the same chick design and foiled mini eggs.

Large £24.95 320g or small £14.95 180g.

Labelled: Alcohol free and soya lecithin free.

Each of the Easter egg tubes contains three Easter eggs and six chocolates truffles in three different flavours:

• Sticky Toffee: Three milk chocolate eggs flavoured with caramel and coffee, for that sticky toffee taste, accompanied by salted caramel chocolate truffles.
• Creme Brulee: Six rich white chocolate vanilla truffles with three hollow white chocolate Easter eggs flavoured with butterscotch and vanilla.
• Hot! Chocolate: Chilli dark chocolate eggs with dark chocolate truffles flavoured with ginger and chilli – really hot chocolate!

All of the Easter eggs from James Chocolates are hand decorated and are presented in tall, ribbon tied, clear tubes. The Easter egg tubes stand 32cm tall and 6cm wide.

£15.00 each for three eggs and six chocolate truffles.

Available from the Easter range at John Lewis.

Moo Free’s dairy free milk chocolate alternative Easter egg for, vegan and lactose intolerant, children.

Moo Free are a chocolate company who wanted to make dairy free chocolate which still has a smooth and creamy taste, they now make chocolate is dairy free chocolate, gluten free, egg free, vegetarian and vegan.

Because this my first try of Moo Free chocolate and this is a rather unique egg, I don’t know of any other dairy free “milk chocolate” eggs, I thought I would taste test it with a few friends. So I got together two vegans, two non-vegans and two children, and got them to try it.

The vegans really liked it and the non-vegans didn’t so much, so a 50/50 Marmite result. Both of the kids really like it with comments like “nice” and “any more?” and as this is mainly aimed at kids I would say that was a good result.

The chocolate does smell like milk chocolate and is a little darker in colour, it is smooth and creamy (however, one “reviewer” did comment it was a little bit grainy) but for me and the other non-vegans it didn’t taste like milk chocolate.

I personally enjoyed the Moo Free Easter egg, but to me the egg tastes a little like rice – I am not sure if it really does taste like rice or if there was a flavour I could not put my finger on and because I had already read the ingredients my brain decided it was the rice powder I could taste.

It’s a new flavour, not quite milk chocolate but defiantly not dark chocolate, I would buy this for anyone that wanted a dairy free milk chocolate Easter egg.

For more information about Moo Free, ingredients lists, full dietary details and where else to buy the eggs see the Moo Free website.

£3.40, 100g milk chocolate dairy free Easter egg from the ethicalsuperstore.

Labelled: Vegan (certified), Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Organic, Fair-trade and Vegetarian.

1. Ostrich Easter Eggs
2. Extra Thick Easter Eggs
3. Beastie Easter Eggs
4. Easter Egg Sandwiches

Hotel Chocolat’s 2013 Easter egg collection includes the biggest Easter eggs, with the giant Ostrich eggs, extra thick Easter eggs, innovative eggs with the cocoa printed Beastie eggs and fun eggs called Easter Egg Sandwiches.

Hotel Chocolat usually have the biggest selection of Easter eggs, but for 2013 they have refined their selection focusing on luxury Easter eggs and the flavoured chocolates they are famous for, as almost all of their most popular eggs come with a selection of chocolates.

They still do have a large selection of Easter eggs and Easter chocolate with a few new additions, so you will be able to get your favourite egg and try something new.

Ostrich Easter Eggs

The two largest Hotel Chocolat Easter eggs are the enormous Ostrich eggs, each egg is two thick chocolate shells with a selection of chocolates; a chocolate box layer of chocolates and six mini foil wrapped chocolate eggs.

The Milk Chocolate Ostrich Easter egg is made with 40% milk chocolate studded with cookie pieces, crispy puffed rice and chunks of white chocolate.

The Half and Half Ostrich Easter egg is a dark chocolate shell made with 70% dark chocolate, and a milk chocolate shell cast 50% milk chocolate.

Presented in the ribbon tied hatboxes with complimenting collections of Easter chocolates, the impressive Ostrich Easter Eggs are £70.00 each and weigh just over a kilo in weight.

Extra Thick Easter Eggs

These, very popular, large Easter eggs are two chunky and extra thick shell halves filled with an assortment of Easter chocolates inside, an assortment of milk, white or dark chocolates depending on the chocolate used in the shell.

In total there are seven Hotel Chocolat Extra Thick Easter eggs, each with a quirky fun name:

Rocky Road to Caramel, a milk chocolate extra thick egg, the Rocky Road half is 40% milk chocolate covered in crispy puffed rice, cookies and chocolate chunks and the caramel half is also 40% cocoa with a layer of caramel chocolate, accompanied by twelve milk chocolate Easter chocolates.

For dark chocolate fans there the is the Serious Dark Fix egg, both egg halves are made with Hotel Chocolat’s, award winning, 70% cocoa dark chocolate. Inside the extra thick dark chocolate egg are twelve dark chocolates with classic flavour combinations and boozy centres.

Inside the chunky, 40% milk chocolate, Egglet egg are twelve Egglets, flavoured mini eggs, in a selection of milk, white and dark chocolate filled with caramel, praline and fruity truffles. This was previously called The Eggsibitionist egg.

Chocolate chicks, Easter bunnies, smiley faces and chocolate fried eggs are packed into the fun You Crack Me Up egg, a milk chocolate (40% cocoa) egg – ideal for children or “big kids”.

One for the adults – Your Eggscellency is half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate with a selection of twelve alcohol infused chocolate truffles, including; white port, mojito cocktail, Champagne, amaretto, vodka – hick!

White chocolate is showcased in the White & Light egg, thick white chocolate shells and twelve white chocolates; white chocolate praline Egglets, strawberry flavoured chocolates and vanilla truffles.

Hotel Chocolat Extra Thick Easter eggs are not only larger than other eggs but are more than three times thicker. Each egg is £27.00 and is presented in a ribbon tied hat box style box.

Beastie Easter Eggs

Hotel Chocolat’s Beastie Easter Eggs are chocolate eggs with patterns and designs “printed” onto the shells, using all natural cocoa butter transfers, creating fun eggs with a unqiue look.

The two animal print eggs; the Cow Beastie Egg and the Zebra Beastie Egg, are popular designs from last year.

And new for this year is the Beau Bunny egg, with a picture of Beau Bunny, Hotel Chocolat’s Easter bunny, on the front.

Each is presented on a stand in a ribbon tied cellophane bag with six Egglet chocolates; 190g and £15.00 each.

Easter Egg Sandwiches

Two Easter egg halves have been squished into two slabs of chocolate and sandwiched back together to create the colourful, fun and tasty Easter Eggs Sandwiches.

Small chocolate Easter eggs packed with flavour. Each Easter Egg Sandwich is £8.00, 100g.

All available to buy now from the Hotel Chocolat website or from John Lewis.

Half a milk chocolate Easter egg with a selection of fresh chocolates and chocolate truffles nestled inside, by Chococo.

The half Easter egg isn’t just half of another egg it is specially made with a flat base, so it stands up own its own like a chocolate bowl, to hold and display the wonderful chocolates inside.

Made from 44% Trinitario bean cocoa, from Grenada, the thick chocolate shell is beautifully smooth and creamy with strong cocoa flavours, just the way I like milk chocolate.

Inside the half Easter egg are the wonderful chocolates and delicious chocolate truffles, in seven different flavours with roughly two of each flavour – I had seventeen chocolates in mine.

Chococo’s chocolates repeatedly win awards and three award winners are in this egg alone;

• Melting Milk chocolate truffle, a vanilla milk chocolate ganache rolled in curls milk chocolate, the centre is soft and creamy with a gentle crush from the chocolate flakes on the outside.
• Chilli Tickle, the smaller chocolate truffle wrapped in gold foil, a dark chocolate truffle dusted in cinnamon icing sugar, rich chocolate with a hint of gentle and warming chilli.
• Blackcurrant, the dark chocolate square with silver lustre and swirls, dark chocolate over blackcurrant paste, fruity and sweet with a wonderful blackcurrant aftertaste.

Presented in ribbon tied cellophane, so you can see the egg and chocolates inside, the half egg would make a fantastic chocolate treat for anyone at Easter and because of the design it would make a perfect sharing dessert or petit fours at a dinner party.

Chococo’s chocolates are handmade fresh, so the chocolate filled half egg will only be available for delivery from April 4th, 2012 – but you can pre-order now.

£17.95, 225g half a chocolate egg and wonderful Chococo chocolates.

Hollow chocolate eggs with minimal packaging; wrapped in foil, which can be recycled as aluminium, and then an outer casing of recycled card, which is recyclable, compostable and biodegradable, Montezuma’s Eco-Eggs are the most environmentally friendly eggs available to buy online. The outer packaging is even designed to save space in the recycling bin!

The Eco-Eggs come in two different flavours, both made from organic chocolate;

The organic milk chocolate with butterscotch Eco-Egg is made from 34% cocoa milk chocolate and has pieces of organic butterscotch in the shell.

The organic dark chocolate with cocoa nibs Eco-Egg is made from 73% cocoa dark chocolate with cocoa nibs in the shell, the dark chocolate egg is listed as vegan – but not dairy free.

When you buy an eco-egg, from Montezuma’s, they will donate 5p to the Butterfly Conservation.

£7.99, 150g each, more environmentally friendly Easter eggs from Montezuma’s.

Labelled: Vegetarian, GM Free, Gluten Free and Organic (Dark chocolate egg is Vegan).

A French style Easter egg from the Chocolate Trading Company, Oeuf de la mer – Egg of the sea.

New for Easter 2012 the Oeuf de la mer is made from 37% milk chocolate, with sea shells moulded into the shell, and decorated with chocolate fish.

Inside the French style Easter egg are a selection of foil wrapped mini eggs in a variety of flavours.

In France Easter is traditionally celebrated with chocolate fish, rather than chocolate bunnies, and in recent years a sea shells and sea creatures have made from chocolate to expand on the tradition.

£24.95, 340g, French style Easter egg, Oeuf de la mer.

Labelled: Alcohol Free and Soya Lecithin Free.

Green & Black’s Chocolate Tasting Easter egg, a dark chocolate Easter eggs with twenty four miniature chocolate bars.

New for 2012 and the largest Easter egg from Green & Black’s; the largest box at least all of Green & Black’s eggs are the same size, apart from the children’s Explorer’s eggs, the boxes are different sizes and shapes depending on whether you get just the egg or Easter eggs with chocolate bars.

The box itself is suitably impressive, a dark brown base with brightly coloured egg shaped swirls; the front of the box has two little windows in the top window you can see the foil wrapped egg inside and below that a window with a few of the miniature chocolate bars peeping through, finished with gold embossed letting and birds.

Inside the box is the 70% dark chocolate eggs, organic and fairtrade, covered in gold foil, bittersweet plain chocolate with Green & Black’s unique flavour and aroma.

Sitting below the egg are two boxes of miniature chocolate bars;

A box of mini milk chocolate bars, with white chocolate bars; including butterscotch, almond, raisin & hazelnut, and two types of milk chocolate.

Included in the mini dark chocolate bars collection are hazelnut, hazelnut & current, cherry, ginger, 70% dark chocolate and 85% dark chocolate.

A total of twenty-four mini chocolate bars, two of each of the twelve different flavours.

Also in the with the Green & Black’s Chocolate Tasting Easter egg are a stack of tasting note cards, one for each flavour, and on the back of the cards are recipes for cocktails, desserts, drinks and biscuits.

A great Easter gift for anyone that wants to know a little bit more about chocolate, the different flavours and types, how to cook with chocolate or how else chocolate can be used; or a great way to sample a variety of Green & Black’s chocolate.

£14.99, 450g, dark chocolate Easter egg and 24 miniature chocolate bars.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Fairtrade and Organic.

Gift Sets & Hampers

You can by Green & Black’s Chocolate Tasting Easter Egg as a single egg or in gift sets and hampers;

The tasting egg is included in two different organic wine gift sets with either a bottle of white wine or a bottle of red wine, both gift sets are presented in a ribbon tied gift box.

The tasting egg is also included in the Green & Black’s Easter hamper.

Cadbury Treasure Eggs, foil wrapped hollow eggs with two, filled, mini chocolate eggs inside.

Inside each egg is the “treasure”, two chocolate mini eggs; the Dairy Milk egg as two solid eggs inside, the Caramel egg two mini Caramel eggs and the Mini Eggs egg two large mini eggs – large compared to the Mini Eggs in a bag.

The eggs inside the Cadbury Treasure Eggs are quite small, less than half the size of a Cadbury Creme Eggs, but not too disappointing given how cheap they are.

Each egg is approximately 135mm tall and 80mm wide, so they are a good size for Easter Egg Hunts or treats for kids.

£1.95, 142g each.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

Cadbury Treasure Eggs Gift Sets

The Treasure Eggs are sold individually or in larger gift sets; the Cadbury Egg Collection has one of each of the Treasure Eggs and three Eggheads, which are hollow milk chocolate eggs with faces.

Cadburys Mini Eggs gift set includes the Mini Eggs Treasure Egg, in a gift bag, a Cadbury Mini Eggs Easter egg and Mini Eggs in a tube and bag.

The Caramel Treasure Egg is included in Cadburys Largest Easter Egg Hamper.

There are a few different ways to run your own Easter egg hunts, depending on the age of the children (or adults), the amount of children and how many eggs you want to buy or you can just pop along to an organised egg hunt in your area.

One of the most important elements to your own Easter egg hunt, apart from enjoying yourself of course, are the eggs.

Easter Egg Hunt Kits

There are a few Easter egg hunt kits available to create your own egg hunt at home, these are normally small kits for families or small groups, with foil wrapped eggs and clue markers.

The Cadbury Easter Egg Trail Packs have ten hollow chocolate eggs and a bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs as the prize.

They also have larger kits, the Cadbury Easter Egg Trail Packs with more chocolates, for larger events or bigger families.

Dubble, by Divine Chocolate, have Easter egg hunt kits in egg boxes; six hollow fairtrade milk chocolate eggs with cut out signs and you can download more signs from the Dubble site.

The Dubble Easter egg hunt kits are available in blue or pink egg boxes from the Ethical Superstore or Oxfam.

Hotel Chocolat’s Easter Egg Hunt Game has five foil wrapped milk chocolate eggs with twenty chocolates, ten milk chocolate and ten dark chocolate, and ten clue arrows presented in a ribbon tied basket.

Thorntons Easter Egg Hunt kit, approximately eight larger hollow eggs and a selection of smaller mini eggs, all milk chocolate and foil wrapped.

You can of course have any combination of eggs for your Easter egg hunt; whenever I have one I normally have one large Easter egg per child/person, which has their name and they have to find, so everyone gets at least one larger egg and lots of little eggs hollow and filled for everyone to find as they look for their larger eggs. Just have fun with it.

Green & Black’s butterscotch chocolate Easter egg, a thick milk chocolate shell with small pieces of butterscotch in the shell, both the chocolate and butterscotch are organic and fairtrade.

Another of my favourite flavoured Easter eggs, the butterscotch Easter egg by Green & Black’s is a very popular egg with the “ummmm” factor.

Crisp organic butterscotch toffee is blended into the thick chocolate shell, this adds a gentle crunch and a mellow flavour that enhances the already delicious rich milk chocolate that Green & Black’s are famous for.

Green & Black’s Easter eggs are in boxes which saves on cardboard and contain no plastic containers.

£6.59, 180g.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Fairtrade and Organic.

Butterscotch Easter Egg Gift Sets

Green & Black’s Butterscotch Easter Egg is available as a single egg from the Green & Black’s website, or as part of larger chocolate gift sets including Green & Black’s Easter hamper.

And you can create your own Green & Black’s hamper using their bespoke hamper service.

1. Charbonnel et Walker Easter Eggs
2. Prestat Truffle Easter Eggs
3. Hotel Chocolat Truffle Eggs
4. Summary

Chocolate truffle Easter eggs, chocolate truffles combined with chocolate eggs or egg shaped chocolate boxes to create luxury chocolate Easter eggs and Easter eggs with a little extra.

Chocolate truffles are a classic way of making and flavouring chocolate, normally a ganache centre inside a chocolate shell or simply dusted with cocoa powder, there are many types of chocolate truffle depending on who makes them, how they are made and how they are flavoured; which is why there is a wide selection of Chocolate truffle Easter eggs to choose from.

Charbonnel et Walker Truffle Easter Eggs

Charbonnel et Walker are world famous for their chocolate truffles, for Easter they have two different types of truffle Easter eggs both Marc de Champagne truffles in three different sized egg.

The largest Charbonnel et Walker Easter egg is the Large Pink Champagne Chocolate Truffle Easter Egg, a milk chocolate shell with pink Marc de Champagne chocolate truffles, 450g.

The smallest egg is the Small Dark Chocolate Easter Egg, a dark chocolate shell with dark chocolate Marc de Champagne truffles, 115g.

All of the eggs are presented in a, covered, gold embossed box with a clear window so you can see the ribbon tied egg inside.

Charbonnel et Walker truffle eggs and Charbonnel et Walker Easter eggs with chocolates are available to buy online from Chocolate Trading Company, Selfridges and John Lewis, not all of the eggs are available in the three different sizes, and not all of the chocolate shops sell all the different types of eggs.

Prestat Chocolate Truffle Easter Eggs

Prestat are believed to have introduced the chocolate truffle to England in when they were established in 1902, so it’s no surprise to see a wonderful selection of chocolate truffle eggs for Easter.

Prestat have a selection of four different chocolate truffle Easter egg flavours, each in two different sizes.

Both the large Marc de Champagne egg and the Marc de Champagne egg are milk chocolate eggs with Marc de Champagne chocolate truffles.

The large Sea Salt Caramel truffle egg and the Sea Salt Caramel truffle egg are 71% cocoa dark chocolate with salted caramel truffles.

Both of the milk chocolate eggs; the large milk chocolate egg and the Prestat milk chocolate egg, are 38% cocoa and are accompanied by a selection of milk, dark and white chocolate truffles.

The large Prestat Easter eggs are 227g, half a pound in old money, and the smaller Prestat Easter eggs are 170g – they are all presented as foil wrapped ribbon tied eggs nestled inside luxury embossed boxes.

Prestat chocolate truffle Easter eggs are available to buy online from the Easter range at Selfridges.

Hotel Chocolat Truffle Easter Eggs

Hotel Chocolat have three different types of chocolate truffle Easter eggs, two of these are new for Easter 2012; the Gianduja Truffle Easter Egg and the Champagne Truffle Easter Egg, in both large and mini sizes.

The larger eggs both have a selection of twenty chocolate truffles and the smaller eggs, the mini Pink Champagne Truffle Easter Egg and mini Dark Gianduja Truffle Easter Egg, have two truffles each. Full details on the Hotel Chocolat Easter eggs 2012, truffle eggs page.

Also from Hotel Chocolat is the Your Eggscellency Easter egg, part of the Extra Thick range.

A large chocolate Easter egg with a selection of twelve, rather boozy, chocolate truffles.

Hotel Chocolat eggs, and a large collection of Easter chocolates are available to buy online from the Hotel Chocolat Hotel Chocolat and John Lewis.

Easter Eggs with Chocolate Truffles

A delightful selection of chocolate truffle Easter eggs for Easter and all of these Brands are British; Charbonnel et Walker and Prestat are two of the oldest chocolate brands in England and Hotel Chocolat, is a younger high-street and online English brand.

A 170g bag of smooth and creamy Divine milk chocolate mini Easter eggs.

They may be small but they are packed with the distinctive creamy flavour of Divine chocolate from the finest Ghanaian cocoa mixed with smooth cocoa butter and a dash of real vanilla.

Wrapped in gold foil featuring the traditional West African Adinkra symbols.

You can learn more about Adinkra symbols on the Adinkra Symbols & Meanings website and download the “Adinkra Symbol Lesson Plan” from the trading visions site, which is really a teachers lesson plan – but it is really interesting and something to so with the kids over Easter (the download is quite large and you will been to give an email address).

£4.25, 170g.

Labelled: Fair Trade and Vegetarian.

Divine Chocolate Mini Eggs

Also from Divine are the praline mini eggs and dark chocolate mini eggs, with individually foil wrapped chocolate mini Easter eggs and the speckled eggs with a crisp sugar shell.

The Divine Milk Chocolate Mini Eggs, the Divine Chocolate Praline Mini Eggs, the Divine Dark Chocolate Mini Eggs and the Divine Milk Chocolate Speckled Eggs are all 170g, £4.25 per bag and all available on multi-buy.

Chocolate Trading Company Discount Code

Get an 8% discount off all chocolate until the 9th of April, 2012.

Simply add the chocolate you want to buy to your shopping basket on the Chocolate Trading Company site, and enter the promotion code “EASTEREGG8” and you will receive 8% off you chocolate. Excludes P&P.

A great way to save money on your Easter eggs and Easter chocolate this year.

The Dorset dinosaur chocolate egg, a milk chocolate Easter egg covered with a layer of decorated white chocolate and chocolate dinosaurs hidden inside.

It is easy to see why this is Chococo’s bestselling Easter egg, when you open the brightly coloured box you are greeted with a white chocolate egg speckled with dark chocolate, which has a wonderful glossy sheen.

As you crack the dinosaur egg open you get the delightful aroma of quality milk chocolate and inside pressed into the sides of the egg are a selection of dinosaurs* and ammonites in either dark chocolate or white chocolate.

The shell has the characteristic snap of quality chocolate with a good cocoa flavour from the milk chocolate and is made even creamier by the layer of white chocolate on the outside, melt in the mouth delicious.

The chocolate shapes inside are the same high quality, the dark chocolate is rich but not too strong with a hint of bitterness and the white chocolate is scrumptiously smooth.

A fun, well-made chocolate Easter egg, perfect for children, budding palaeontologists and lovers of good chocolate – definitely one to try.

£12.95, 175g.

Save 15% when you buy two Chococo Dinosaur Easter eggs for £22.00, both prices include p&p.

* dinosaurs not to scale!

Hotel Chocolat’s Your Eggsellency Extra Thick Easter egg, two thick egg halves one dark chocolate half and one milk chocolate half, filled with a selection of boozy chocolate truffles.

I love milk chocolate and dark chocolate, not just one or the other and so do a lot of people. You can always get a milk chocolate Easter egg or a dark chocolate Easter egg – it’s not that often that you can treat yourself, oops I mean buy someone else, a half dark and half milk chocolate Easter egg. So this is quite a rare find.

This delicious looking egg “Your Eggsellency” is by Hotel Chocolat and is part of this year’s Extra Thick Easter Eggs collection. The contrast in colour between the milk and dark chocolate shells is rather beautiful and really sets of the chocolate truffles inside, which I haven’t even mentioned yet.

For Easter 2012 Hotel Chocolat have chic new boxes for their larger Easter eggs, the Ostrich Eggs and Extra Thick Eggs, round and deep the hat box style boxes which present the eggs exquisitely. First you have to undo the black ribbon which holds the removable black lid in place, inside you will find the two egg shell halves wrapped in foil, resting on one another and inside the chocolate shells sit the fabulous chocolate truffles.

Twelve soft cream ganaches in six different boozy flavours;

• White Port Truffle: A soft white chocolate centre with a dash of white port in a milk chocolate shell.
• Amaretto Amour: Crunchy pieces of crushed Amaretti biscuit on the shell with a amaretto infused creamy centre.
• Mojito Cocktail: A white chocolate truffle with rum, mint and lime to recreate the classic cocktail in chocolate form.
• Bison Grass Vodka: A dry, herb flavoured, Polish vodka blended with cream ganache in a mellow milk chocolate truffle.
• And two of Hotel Chocolat’s Champagne chocolate truffle flavours; Classic and Pink.

A chocolate Easter egg for adults with a 40% cocoa milk chocolate half and a 70% cocoa dark chocolate half, filled with twelve luxury alcohol infused chocolate truffles.

£26.00, 370g, chocolate truffle filled Easter egg.

Labelled: Vegetarian.

Well he is actually called Easter Chocolate Egg Head Gift or “Make Your Own Easter Egg”, but either way it is Mr Potato Head as an Easter egg.

This has been hugely popular over the past few last years, I know at least four of my friends bought them for their children – well that’s what they said, I have a sneaking suspicion they bought them to play with too.

The Chef Marshall Easter Egg Head is a milk chocolate egg that comes with a moustache, nose, eyes and big eyes to stick on with the “chocolate goo”, which you warm up in warm water so it turns into a chocolaty glue.

I used think the Chef Marshall / Mr Potato Head egg was made especially for John Lewis, but have recently found out that it is made by Stas Chocolatier, who also make eggs for Waitrose.

You can buy him online from the Easter Gifts & Food section of the John Lewis website. And this year you can also get the Chicken version, the same fun idea but as an Easter chick.

300g of fun milk chocolate for £12.00.

Cadbury Creme Eggs are one of the most sought after chocolate treats from Cadbury at Easter; as they are only in “season” for part of the year – Here Today, Goo tomorrow!

The Cadbury Creme Eggs Passion hamper is a collection of Creme Eggs in many different guises; the medium sized Cadbury Creme Egg egg, a six pack of normal sized Creme Eggs, a tube and a bag of Creme Egg Minis and a bag of the new Creme Egg Splats.

£15.00, for lots of gooey Cadbury Creme Eggs.

Creme Eggs Easter Eggs

Cadbury Gifts Direct have two different sizes of Creme Eggs Easter eggs to buy online; the medium sized egg, the same egg in the Cadbury Creme Eggs Passion hamper and the Giant Creme Egg Easter Egg, the largest egg from the Cadbury Easter Eggs range.

Both of these eggs are also available in gift sets; the medium egg in the Creme Egg Cup Set with two branded ceramic egg cups or with a branded Creme Egg mug. And the Giant Creme Egg Easter egg as part of the Cadbury Creme Egg with Mr Bear set with a cute Mr Cadbury Bear soft toy.

£8.50, 178g egg and two egg cups – £22.50, 532g egg, six Creme Eggs and the Cadbury bear.

Creme Eggs in Bulk

If you are like me then just one Creme Egg is never enough, luckily you can buy the Goo filled eggs in bulk.

The Creme Egg Gift Pack is a specially designed gift box stuffed with eight little boxes of three eggs – that’s twenty four Creme Eggs in total and you get an egg cup too!

And if you need even more than that, you can get a box of forty eight eggs. Just like the boxes they have in the sweet shops.

£10.00, gift Pack. – £24.00, Creme Egg 48 Box.

All of the Creme Egg gifts sets are available from the Cadbury Gifts Direct site, they even have a special Creme Egg page here and are all Creme Eggs are labelled vegetarian and gluten free.

Goo!

The fondant filled chocolate eggs are even more popular today, since they were first introduced in 1971, having reached iconic status in the past few years with some fantastic ad campaigns. The Cadbury Creme Eggs season is from the 1st of January until Easter, the 8th of April.

The Creme Egg site is filled with fun things, you can win “Gooey” prizes, play games, download iPhone apps (when they are ready) and even join become a fan on Facebook!

The gooiest chocolate egg – the Creme Egg from Cadbury, Gooing for Gold!

Hotel Chocolat’s egg and soldiers, cute novelty Easter chocolates with an eggy twist, praline filled milk chocolate half eggs and white chocolate soldiers.

Presented in a small box these chocolate treats make a great gift for all ages, especially children and big kids!

The eggs & soldiers are split over two layers, on the top layer are the five praline filled chocolate eggs, slim half Easter eggs decorated on one side with splats of white chocolate that look like fried eggs.

And on the bottom layer are the white chocolate soldiers, “painted” to look like they have already been dipped in egg yolk.

£6.50, ten delicious chocolates.

Hotel Chocolat Eggs & Soldiers

The milk chocolate eggs & soldiers are also included in the The Easter Basket Collection.

The chocolate Easter eggs & soldiers are not the only eggie chocolates from Hotel Chocolat; they are also available in a dark chocolate version, the Dark Eggs & Soldiers. And if you prefer chips with your eggs Hotel Chocolat’s Egg & Chips will be perfect for you.

All of these eggy Easter chocolate treats are available to buy online from the Easter range at Hotel Chocolat

Labelled: Gluten Free, Alcohol Free and Vegetarian.

Green & Black’s dark chocolate Easter egg gift set, The Essential Easter Egg Dark Collection, a gift box of Green & Black’s dark chocolate eggs and chocolate bars presented in a ribbon tied box.

The perfect organic fair-trade Easter gift set for dark chocolate lovers, the gift set includes two chocolate Easter eggs and three additional chocolate bars.

All made with bittersweet dark chocolate with 70% cocoa solids made from quality Trinitario beans.

The Dark Chocolate Easter Egg Gift Set from Green & Black’s includes:

• The Dark Collection, a dark chocolate Easter egg with two 100g bars of chocolate; a dark chocolate with ginger bar and a burnt toffee dark chocolate bar.
• The mint Easter egg, a dark chocolate Easter egg infused with peppermint oil. A new Easter egg for 2012.
• A full size dark chocolate bar with cherry.
• A full size espresso dark chocolate bar.
• A mini Maya Gold chocolate bar.

All presented in a Green & Black’s gift box, a rather smart embossed box tied with a yellow ribbon. Both eggs are also available as individual eggs, and in larger gift hampers, from Green & Black’s Direct.

£25.00, 795g of dark chocolate.

Labelled: Organic and Fair Trade.

1. Great British Puds Eggs
2. Thorntons Continental Eggs
3. Thorntons Collections Easter Eggs
4. Children’s Easter Eggs
5. Summary
   • Gluten Free

The 2012 Easter egg range from Thorntons, a selection of chocolate Easter eggs including favourites from previous years and new eggs for Easter 2012, a large selection of white, dark and milk chocolate eggs for young and old made from Thorntons chocolate.

The new eggs for Easter 2012 include the Great British Pud eggs, the large Continental Statement egg, three extra thick eggs and new designs for their novelty children’s eggs.

Great British Puds Easter Eggs

New for 2012 are the “Great British Puds” eggs, chocolate Easter eggs flavoured like classic fruity desserts.

The pink, Eton Mess, egg is a strawberry flavoured white chocolate egg decorated with raspberry and meringue pieces.

Real slices of banana and pieces of Thorntons Special Toffee decorate the front of the milk chocolate Banoffee Pie Easter egg.

The pale yellow egg is also white chocolate, but flavoured with lemon and decorated with more lemon and pieces of meringue to make the Lemon Meringue Easter egg.

Thorntons Great British Pub eggs are thicker and larger than their normal eggs, and are presented in clear boxes with the decoration at the front – colourful, fun and tasty.

Thorntons Continental Easter Eggs

Thorntons are best known for their chocolate ranges and the Thorntons Continental chocolate collection is probably the most popular, it is for me anyway, and they have created three Continental chocolate Easter eggs including the most expensive and Thorntons Easter egg the Statement egg, a speckled milk chocolate egg decorated with swirls of dark and white chocolate with a selection of twenty seven chocolate from the Continental range.

The other two Thorntons Continental Easter eggs are the Thorntons Continental Easter Egg and the Thorntons Continental Viennese Easter Egg, both milk chocolate eggs with twelve chocolates; a selection of with the Thorntons Continental egg and Viennese chocolate truffles with the Continental Viennese egg.

Thorntons Collections Easter Eggs

Along with the Continental eggs, Thorntons also have Easter Eggs from their most popular ranges including; Thorntons Classics, 70% Dark Chocolate, Love Toffee, Love Fudge, Thorntons Melts and No Added Sugar.

Thorntons Classics Easter egg and the 70% cocoa Easter egg are both larger than the rest of these eggs, the same size as the two Continental eggs.

Thorntons Classics Easter egg is a milk chocolate egg with a raised pattern on the front and a selection of twelve Thorntons Classics chocolate and the 70% cocoa egg is dark chocolate, decorated with swirls of milk and white chocolate and eleven dark chocolates.

Both of the “love” eggs are a little different to the others, the Thorntons Love Fudge Easter egg has pieces of fudge in the shell of the egg and comes with a bag of fudge in the box and the Thorntons Love Toffee Easter Egg has crunchy toffee pieces in the shell and is accompanied by a bag of Thorntons Special Toffee.

Children’s Easter Eggs

There are three novelty Easter eggs from Thorntons, small Easter eggs for children with cute chocolate decorations on the front.

The milk chocolate Football egg has a white and dark chocolate football decoration. Bramble the chocolate bunny is on the front of the chocolate bunny egg and the milk chocolate butterfly egg features a dark and white chocolate butterfly.

Thorntons Easter Eggs

These are not quite all of the Thorntons eggs, I have a few more to add and they have done that rather odd thing where you can buy Thorntons eggs in shops which you can’t be from their own website. I know there is one you can buy in Tesco, so there may be others available as well.

In summary:

• Thorntons largest Easter is the Continental Statement egg.
• Thorntons gluten free eggs; all of Thorntons Easter eggs are listed as gluten free (no gluten containing ingredients), apart from two of the Great British Pud eggs, the Eton Mess Easter Egg and the Lemon Meringue Easter Egg.

Create your own Easter egg hunt at home or in the park with the Easter Egg Trail Pack from Cadbury.

The trail pack contains ten hollow chocolate eggs, wrapped in brightly coloured foils, and a small bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs as the prize.

The box is shaped like a basket, with a handle, and on the back of the box are four cut-out “trail markers” so you can place clues for your Easter egg hunters to find.

If you do want to use the boxes as colleting baskets you will need a Cadbury Easter Egg Trail Pack per child, or one for two to children share – but there is a small problem, if you cut out the little sign posts you then have a basket with holes in! So you can either make your own makers and clues, buy some extra packs to cut up or use something else to collect the eggs in.

£4.09, 229g.

Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt Kits

The Cadbury Easter Egg Trail Pack is ideal for small Easter egg hunts with one or two children, but for more children or even the whole family there are larger sets which also in the Trail Pack.

Boths set contain small Easter eggs and chocolate from Cadbury’s Easter range which can be used a prizes or as part of your Easter egg hunt.

The largest Easter egg hamper from Cadbury chocolate, the Cadbury Ultimate Easter Basket, packed with classic Cadbury Easter egg, Cadbury chocolate and new eggs for 2012.

Cadbury Ultimate Easter Basket contains:

New 2012 Eggs:

• A Cadbury Dairy Milk Medal Egg, an Easter egg with a chocolate gold medal to celebrate the Olympics and Team GB.
• The Cadbury Buttons Monkey egg, chocolate buttons with a cute Monkey soft toy
• The Freddo Frog egg with Freddo chocolate and the Freddo Soft toy.

Four Large Easter Eggs:

• A Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate Easter egg with three Cadbury Dairy Milk Bars.
• A Roses egg, classic Cadbury milk chocolate egg and Cadbury Roses chocolates.
• A Cadbury Wispa chocolate egg with three delicious Wispa bars.
• A Flake Easter egg with three Cadbury Flakes.

Cadbury Creme Eggs:

• A medium sized Cadbury Creme Egg Egg.
• A three pack of Cadbury Creme Eggs.
• A bag of Cadbury Splats, squished Creme eggs

Cadbury Mini Eggs:

• A medium sized Cadbury Mini Eggs Egg,
• A bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs.

Small Cadbury Eggs:

• A Cadbury Caramel Treasure Egg, in a purple gift bag.
• Two small Cadbury Buttons eggs.
• A Cadbury Easter Egg Trail Pack, for Easter egg hunts.

That’s a rather impressive ten Easter eggs and thirteen mini eggs with even more Cadbury chocolate, presented a twenty inch traditional wicker basket.

Cadbury’s Largest Easter Egg Hamper is an online exclusive and only available to buy online from Cadbury.

£70.00, a massive 3kg of Cadbury chocolate! (approximately 3018g).

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

Thorntons Love Toffee Easter Egg, two classics from Thorntons chocolate and toffee brought together as an Easter egg.

The milk chocolate egg is presentenced in yellow and orange box with two windows in it, at the top you can see the egg and below is a smaller window where you can see the bag of Thorntons Special Toffee which comes with the egg.

Although the outside of the egg looks smooth once you crack it open you can see the small pieces of crunchy toffee in the shell, which added texture an initial crunch which then becomes chewy, and making the chocolate sweeter.

If you want to make Thorntons Love Toffee Easter Egg even more special, you can personalise the egg by having a short message or a name iced on for free, see the Thorntons site for more details.

An Easter treat for lovers of Thorntons and toffee.

£6.50, Thorntons Love Toffee Easter egg with a bag of toffee.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

For the fifth year running, The National Trust and the National Trust for Scotland supported by Cadbury, have opened the National Trust properties to hold the Cadbury Easter Egg Trails, Easter egg hunts, and other fun Easter activities over the long weekend.

The Easter Egg Hunts are held all over the UK, find your local trail, and each venue has different events, including face painting, egg rolling and Easter egg decorating, all depending on where you go.

Every child, and it is just the kids – I checked, get a Cadbury Egghead for completing the trail.

The events are held on National Trust, and National Trust for Scotland, sites and properties so there will probably be an entrance fee, to either the Trail or property or both, please double check before you go.

Egghead Competition

At the Easter egg hunts you can enter the “Design your own Egghead Competition”, where you can submit a design that could be one of the new Eggsheads for next year and tickets to Cadbury World.

You can pick up entry form/design template on the day – you must be under 16 to enter; all the terms & conditions can be found on the Easter Egg Trail website.

Previous Competition Winners

Rather annoyingly I have only been able to find one of the previous winners for the “Design your own Egghead Competition”, even though previous year’s winners are included in the different Egghead designs.

From 10,260 entries, Catriona aged 12 from Scotland designed the winning entry in 2009.

If you are a fan of Cadbury chocolate and Cadbury the brand or you are buying eggs for someone who is, then this Easter is perfect for you.

Not only have Cadbury created Easter eggs with toys, but Cadbury Gifts Direct have some classic Cadbury branded soft toy Easter egg gift sets as well.

Possibly the most famous is the Cadburys Gorilla playing the drums from the Dairy Milk TV advert; you can get your own official soft toy version exclusively from Cadbury Gifts Direct with a giant Cadbury Dairy Milk Easter egg.

£25.00, 575g Giant Easter Egg with chocolate bars and Large Cadbury Gorilla Soft Toy.

Freddo Frog & Buttons Monkey

Last year Cadbury released the Freddo Frog Easter egg, which was extremely popular, this year the Freddo egg returns with a new egg for 2012 the Buttons Monkey egg, a Dairy Milk Buttons Easter egg with a soft monkey toy.

You can buy these two little children’s Easter eggs almost anywhere, everywhere they sell Cadbury chocolate, but Cadbury Gifts Direct sell them online as single eggs or in larger gift sets and hampers of chocolate especially for Easter.

In the Freddo Frog Easter Egg gift set you get the Cadbury Dairy Milk egg and toy boxed and ten Freddo bars, five caramel and five milk chocolate, in a purple gift bag and in the Buttons Monkey Easter Egg gift set you get the Cadbury Buttons egg and toy also boxed and eight bags of Buttons in a purple gift bag, four bags of white buttons and four of milk chocolate.

If you are buying for a family or lots of eggs at once and you want the eggs with toys you can buy the even bigger chocolate hampers with the small eggs included.

The Cadbury Easter Egg collections with Freddo Frog or Buttons Monkey are £25.00 each.

Mr Cadbury Bear Easter Eggs

Three of Cadburys largest Easter eggs, the Giant eggs, come with a Mr Cadbury Bear – a sandy brown teddy bear dressed in a purple waistcoat with gold buttons, purple pads on his paws and a gold “C” on his left foot.

These gift sets each contain a Giant egg, chocolates and the large soft toy;

• Cadbury Creme Egg Giant Easter Egg with a box of six Creme Eggs and Mr Bear -£22.50, 532g.
• Giant Dairy Milk Easter Egg and teddy bear with two Cadbury Dairy Milk bars – £22.50, 575g.
• Mr Cadbury Bear and a Giant Mini Eggs Easter Egg and two bags of solid milk mini chocolate eggs – £22.50, 532g.

I believe the Mr Cadbury Bear is a character from Cadbury World, but I could be wrong.

Cadbury Caramel Bunny

Another classic Cadbury character from television ads is the Cadbury Caramel Bunny.

This adorable cartoon character turned into a soft toy is dark brown with a lighter shade of brown on her tummy, face and the inside of her ears, a large pink ribbon round her neck, with big eyes and even bigger ears she stands 36cm tall.

£20.00, 496g Giant Caramel Bunnies Easter Egg with five packets of Caramel Bunnies chocolates and Cadbury Caramel soft toy bunny.

That’s a lot of Cadbury’s chocolate and a lot of fun to be had this Easter and all available online at Cadbury Gifts Direct.

£3.49 to £25.00.

Green & Black’s largest Easter egg hamper, the Ultimate Easter Egg Hamper, filled with a selection of milk and dark chocolate eggs from their Easter range and two boxes of miniature chocolate bars.

Green & Black’s Largest Easter Egg Hamper contains:

Six Easter Eggs:

• The new Easter Tasting Collection egg, a 70% cocoa dark chocolate Easter egg with an assortment of twenty-four miniature chocolates bars in milk, dark and white chocolate.
• Green & Black’s milk chocolate collection, a milk chocolate egg with two full sized chocolate bars; milk chocolate with butterscotch and milk chocolate with raisin & hazelnut.
• A milk chocolate with butterscotch Easter egg.
• A mint dark chocolate Easter egg.
• Two milk chocolate Explorer’s children’s Easter eggs, pink and blue.

Miniature Chocolates Bars:

• Dark Miniature Bar Collection which includes 12 x 15g Miniature Bars.
• Milk Miniature Bar Collection which includes 12 x 15g Miniature Bars.

All the eggs and chocolates bars are presented in a traditional wicker hamper with a leather handle and buckle fasteners, which can be reused as a picnic basket or a decorative storage box.

Green & Black’s largest Easter egg hamper is a limited edition and an online exclusive from Green & Black’s Direct.

£65.00, approximately 1860g of chocolate.

Labelled: Organic, Vegetarian, Fairtrade and Gluten Free.

Hotel Chocolat’s Easter Egg Sandwiches, four cute decorated chocolate Easter eggs in four different flavours.

These are not your normal Easter eggs but two slices of flavoured chocolate with chocolate egg shell halves squished into them, and placed back to back to create an Easter Egg Sandwich.

Four distinct flavour combinations make up the Easter Egg Sandwich range, each with a quirky sandwich name. The packaging is fun too, designed to look like sandwich boxes with a little window to show the chocolate sandwich inside.

The flavour choices:

• Creamed Caramel Club Egg Sandwich – Slices of milk chocolate fused with white chocolate and studded with caramel drops are sandwiched between two caramel milk chocolate shells.
• Seriously Dark Wrap Egg Sandwich – 70% cocoa dark chocolate shells decorated with stripes of piped chocolate and embedded in dark chocolate slabs blended with cocoa nibs, for extra texture, crunch and flavour. The dairy free and vegan option.
• Strawberry Melt Egg Sandwich – The traditional Eton Mess as an Easter Egg, creamy white chocolate and zingy strawberry flavoured chocolate slices decorated with meringue pieces between white chocolate shells.
• Smooth Praline Toasty Egg Sandwich – 40% cocoa milk chocolate shells, pressed into slices of praline-marbled milk chocolate.

Each dinky egg weighs 100g and is 10cm high and just under 7.5cm at its widest point.

The eggs decorated with bright colours use white chocolate and white chocolate coloured with natural colourings.

Fun Easter Eggs with one for everybody, packed with flavour and beautifully decorated.

£8.00 per Easter Egg Sandwich or three for £21.00.

A decorated milk chocolate egg with a chocolate box containing a selection of Thorntons Continental chocolates.

The hollow milk chocolate egg is embellished with drizzles of white chocolate and dark chocolate, creating criss-crossing horizontal lines around the centre the egg and finished off with a ribbon box.

Along side the egg is a box of twelve Thorntons Continental chocolates; inspired by European foods and recipes the Continental collection has chocolate truffles, pralines, and chocolate versions of desserts, that reflect a passion for chocolate.

You can have a message iced onto the egg, at no extra charge, creating a personalised Easter gift.

£9.99, decorated chocolate egg and a box of 12 chocolates.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

The Eggsibitionist extra thick Easter Egg from Hotel Chocolat, two chunky milk chocolate half shells filled with a selection of filled mini egg chocolates.

Made from Hotel Chocolat’s special, 40% cocoa house blend, milk chocolate the extra thick shells are up to three times thicker than normal Easter eggs, each half is wrapped in foil to keep them fresh.

Hiding inside the egg halves is a selection of twelve filled mini eggs, the same gorgeous little eggs as in the Easter H-Box, Seekster Easter Egg Box Selection and Chocolate Quail Eggs box, but without the alcohol. So if you missed out on those you can try them in this egg.

The egg is approximately 147mm high and weighs a hefty 400g, presented in a designer box the Hotel Chocolat’s Extra Thick Easter Eggs are at the luxury end of the Easter eggs available this year and make very impressive gifts.

£24.00, approximately 400g of rather chucky milk chocolate with truffles.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Alcohol Free and Gluten Free.

Hotel Chocolat’s Dark Chocolate Eggsposé egg, half an Extra Thick Easter egg with eight gianduja mini eggs inside.

This is the dairy free Easter egg from the Eggsposé range, one of five half eggs new for 2011.

Eggsposé a play on the word exposé, meaning to reveal or uncover, and they do live up to their name – the stylish box the eggs are presented in have windows on the front so you can see the mini eggs or chocolates inside, tempting you to try them.

The Extra Thick shell is made from Hotel Chocolat’s award winning house, 70% cocoa, dark chocolate and stands 157mm tall and is about 4mm thick, which doesn’t should very thick but is actually two or three times thicker than other eggs.

For me the real stars of the show are the gianduja mini eggs, gianduja is dark chocolate blended with finely ground hazelnuts and sugar to create a smooth paste, the eight mini eggs are in cast from same dark chocolate as the egg shell and then encrusted with sugar crystals. As you bite into the eggs the sugar adds a crunchy texture followed by the snap of the dark chocolate shell, then comes the beautiful gianduja filling, with the consistency of a very dense mousse – which is so smooth and creamy I had to check this really was a vegan egg! Absolutely beautiful.

Fine chocolate shaped into a chic egg shell and eight mini eggs, worth the price just for the gianduja mini eggs.

£14.00, 225g.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Alcohol Free, Vegan and Dairy Free.

Five Easter egg collections from Green & Black’s, each containing three Easter eggs and two chocolate bars, in different milk and dark chocolate flavour combinations.

The Maya Gold, my favourite Green & Black’s flavour, collection contains all dark chocolate eggs and bars; a Luxury Dark egg a 180g egg with two 100g chocolate bars – dark chocolate with ginger and dark chocolate with cherry, a thick shelled Maya Gold Easter 180g, a 100g box of dark chocolate mini eggs with praline centres and two mini bars, 70% dark chocolate and Maya Gold – both 35g each.

More Green & Black’s Easter Egg Collections

The other four collections have the same selection of Easter eggs, mini eggs and chocolate bars.

Milk Collection:

• A Luxury Milk Chocolate Easter Egg, with a butterscotch bar and a milk chocolate bar with almonds.
• A Thick Shelled milk chocolate Easter egg.
• Butterscotch milk chocolate mini eggs
• A white chocolate mini bar and a creamy milk chocolate bar.

Dark Collection:

• A Luxury Dark Chocolate Easter Egg, cherry and ginger flavoured dark chocolate bars.
• A 70% cocoa, dark chocolate Thick Shelled Easter egg.
• Praline centred dark chocolate mini eggs.
• 70% dark chocolate and Maya Gold mini chocolate bars.

Butterscotch Collection:

• A Luxury organic Milk Easter Egg with two 100g bars, milk chocolate with butterscotch and milk chocolate with almond.
• A butterscotch Thick Shelled Easter egg.
• 100g of foil wrapped butterscotch mini eggs.
• A white chocolate mini bar and a Creamy Milk chocolate mini bar.

Easter Egg Collection:

• A Luxury Milk Easter Egg and two chocolate bars, butterscotch and almond.
• A milk chocolate with butterscotch Thick Shelled Easter egg.
• Milk chocolate mini eggs.
• A white chocolate bar and a Creamy Milk chocolate bar, both miniature.

Each of Green & Black’s Easter egg collections are presented in a gift box tied with a ribbon.

I really like this idea, the same selection of chocolate but with different flavours combinations and a choice of milk or dark chocolate, it means you can buy the same gift for different people who different tastes and you spend exactly the same amount on them. Or the collections can be split up into three gifts with two bars leftover for you!

£25.00, 530g.

Labelled: Organic, Vegetarian, Fairtrade and Gluten Free.

A handmade milk chocolate Easter egg from Chococo, decorated with coloured white chocolate and “studded” on the inside with chocolate beans and popping candy!

This delicious egg is made with 41% cocoa, Venezuelan carenero superior, milk chocolate. The egg shell is then hand piped in a diagonal, horizontal and vertical criss-cross pattern using coloured white chocolate, coloured with natural colourings, the three colours; orange, pink and green which stand out against the gloss of the chocolate creating a striking and eye-catching design.

The inside of the egg is just as colourful as the stripy outside, it contains chocolate beans in a variety of colours, think grown up over sized Smarties, and hidden under a layer of more chocolate is the popping candy or Space Dust, depending on your age, little rocks waiting to explode as you bite into them.

Because Chococo make good quality milk chocolate, made with 41% cocoa compared to standard milk chocolate which averages 31%, it is less sweet and has much more flavours, smooth and mellow without being too over powering. But this egg is just about great flavours and good quality chocolate, there are also the chocolate beans and popping candy; the beans give a great crunch and added texture as you bite through then and the popping candy pops and fizzes – and as they are sprinkled inside the egg you get different amounts with each mouthful. I personally found that if you let the chocolate melt in your mouth you get much more of the fizzing, exploding and popping from the candy than you do biting it.

A fun egg made with quality milk chocolate, handmade and decorated with chocolate beans and fun popping candy – would bring a smile to anybody’s face!

£12.95, 175g.

Decorate and personalise your own Easter eggs with the cocoapod EasterEggs DIY Kit, create your own sweet covered egg to give as a gift or eat yourself!

This fun kit is the Easter version of cocoapod’s “Decorate Your Own FunnyFaces Kit”, a kit with chocolate shapes which you can decorate.

This EasterEggs version has four milk chocolate, 31% cocoa, flat eggs for you to decorate with the sweets included, also in the kit are some chocolate drops which you can melt to stick your creations in place and enough bags and ribbons for your wrap your eggs up as gifts.

The cocoapod EasterEggs DIY Kit contents:

• Four milk chocolate egg shapes, 35g each
• A rather large bag of pick ‘n’ mix style retro sweets, 320g
• A bag of milk chocolate drops for melting, 100g
• Four brushes for the melted chocolate
• Four cute fluffy chicks
• Bags and ribbons to wrap the completed eggs in
• Full instructions

Apart from a way to melt the chocolate you have everything you need all in one box, making the kit a great activity to keep the kids entertained over Easter or the kit can make four individual Easter eggs with that homemade touch.

£19.75, 560g of Easter fun.

The largest Easter chocolate hamper from Hotel Chocolat for 2011, filled with a selection of dark chocolate and milk chocolate goodies.

The Easter Weekend Chocolate Hamper contains:

• The Easter Sleekster – A cracking collection of 30 mini Easter egg chocolates, each with a filled centre in a selection of eleven different flavours.
• Dark Eggs & Soldiers – Five dark chocolate half eggs filled with rich praline alongside five dark chocolate soldiers – egg & soldiers the fun way.
• Milk Chocolate Half Easter Egg – Half of an Extra Thick Easter Egg, 40% milk chocolate, filled with eight praline mini eggs
• Dark Tiddly Chicks – 70% dark chocolate cast into eight cute Easter chick shaped chocolates.
• Milk Chocolate Doodle Slab – A 100g mini slab, doodled on in chocolate with a milk chocolate Easter chick on top.
• 5 Eggs Florentines – An Easter version of the, crispy and chewy, chocolate Florentine.

Perfect for a family to share, with boozy chocolates in the selection box for the adults and cute chocolate shapes for the kids or split up into six individual Easter chocolate gifts.

£60.00

A milk chocolate and white chocolate egg, hand decorated with the Union Jack flag on the outside and a surprise on the inside; the Union Jack Egg, an Easter egg with a difference from Chococo.

Made mainly with milk chocolate, 41% Venezuelan, the egg is then covered in a layer of white chocolate creating the base for the beautiful flag design.

The egg is then generously hand piped using white chocolate, coloured with all natural colourings, to create the eye-catching Union Jack flag. Because the eggs are handmade each egg is unique; your very own, delicious, work of chocolate art.

The inside of the egg has been studded with red fruits, making it just as exciting as the outside. Freeze-dried strawberries and raspberries have been liberally sprinkled inside the egg and then covered with a layer of more milk chocolate, creating a beautiful textured layer. When you crack and break the egg up the fruits peek out giving you wonderful flashes of bright red against the chocolate background.

With three different layers; the white chocolate, the milk chocolate and the fruit, each mouthful is slightly different. Sometimes the milk comes through on top with beautiful cocoa tones, other times it is blended with the white chocolate creating a smoother creamier chocolate, and now and then you get the sweetness and tang from the raspberries and strawberries. As you bite through the shell of the egg, not only do you the satisfying snap of chocolate but also the subtle differences between the two types of chocolate followed by the crisp crunch from some of the honeycomb textured fruit pieces and chewiness from others – each mouthful different and a delightful.

This beautiful egg stands approximately 140mm tall, it’s a little hard to measure accurately because of the white chocolate decoration, and is presented in a box with cut-out windows so you can see the egg inside.

There is a slight problem with the box, the eggs are held in place by two cardboard supports with holes in – unfortunately these rub against the egg creating scratches and dents, noticeable but forgivable as it doesn’t cause a lot of damage or ruin the egg.

A visual feast with ever changing flavours and wonderful textures, superbly made and presented – highly recommended.

£12.95, 175g.

You never know when you might need forty-five Cadbury Easter Eggs! And if you do know when you might need a lot of chocolate eggs, then the Cadbury Easter Egg, medium sized egg, assortment could be just what you are looking for.

Bulk buying Easter eggs is an economical way to get Easter eggs even cheaper, you don’t even need to be a company or organisation to buy them you can group together with friends or family and still get the discount, and as these are the most popular varieties of the Cadburys Easter Eggs, everyone will be happy.

The assortment contains a selection of Cadbury Mini Eggs Egg, Dairy Milk Buttons Egg, Cadbury Flake Egg, Dairy Milk Caramel Egg and Crunchie Egg. You can ask for specific eggs, but they can’t guarantee what you will get – so it’s a kind of lucky Easter egg dip! All are the medium sized boxed eggs from Cadbury.

The price is for 45 assorted Cadbury eggs, thats works out as £3.60 each – they are great for promotions, giveaways or even an Easter Egg hunt, depending on the weather over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

£161.90, for 45 medium sized Cadbury Easter Eggs.

Twelve of the legendary Champagne flavoured Booja Booja organic chocolate truffles in a, 6” / 15cm, hand-painted and ribbon tied ornamental egg.

These extremely popular dark chocolate truffle cubes are made with 56% cocoa and a dash of Champagne and then dusted in the finest cocoa powder, creating a light and soft truffle with a bitter taste, from the outer layer, that melts away into a smooth and creamy centre with a hint of alcohol. Simple, but beautiful.

The chocolate truffles are fabulous and the eggs they come in are rather special too; handmade and intricately hand painted in the Kashmir region, the papier mâché eggs are made by different artists and families making each egg unique and collectable.

The Booja Booja Champagne Truffle Easter egg comes in two sizes, this being the large version with 13 truffles, the smaller egg has three truffles and also comes in two other flavours Espresso and Hazelnut Crunch – all three flavours are vegan, dairy free, organic, wheat & gluten free.

If you are not a fan of dark chocolate I urge you to try these, the cocoa powder does give that sharp bitter cocoa taste which tends to put people off, but the centres are divine and the Champagne is not overpowering at all – everyone who has tried these, that I know at least, have loved or enjoyed them whether they liked dark chocolate or not.

£27.95, 150g.

Labelled: Organic, Vegan / Dairy Free and Gluten Free.

The Chococo Mini Dorset Duck Eggs have changed since 2011 and are now the Milk Chocolate Rattle Eggs.

Six brightly coloured foil wrapped mini chocolate duck eggs handmade in Purbeck, Dorset, presented real egg boxes, in a choice of two colours.

The eggs are about the size of a standard chicken egg, approximately 60mm tall, and weigh 25g each.

Cast in milk chocolate the adorable eggs have a second coating of chocolate on top, this not only gives the outside of the eggs a swirling marbled pattern, but also extra texture. As you bite through the chocolate you have the crisper crunch of the outer layer along with the snap of the milk chocolate shell beneath – subtle but very enjoyable.

Hidden inside each of the Chococo mini Dorset duck eggs is a sweet treat; chocolate covered crisp honeycombe, plump raisins and crunchy hazelnuts, naturally coloured jellybeans, chocolate beans and a solid chocolate ducking.

I personally think these would make wonderful alternative, to a standard Easter egg, for kids. Not only do you have a choice of a pink and blue box, but also you can get them in dark chocolate version (in a yellow box), exactly the same eggs, the same choices and sizes – but dairy free! So if you have one child who is dairy intolerant and one who isn’t they can have almost the same chocolate for Easter.

Fun, bright Easter eggs made from quality chocolate, which has been well designed and executed – very appealing, a firm favourite of mine!

£11.95, 150g.

A chocolate goodie hamper with two types of Mini Eggs and chocolate from Montezuma’s, presented in a gift boxed decorated for Easter. This Easter chocolate hamper contains a selection milk, white and dark chocolate from the normal range and the Easter range.

The Montezuma’s Mini Eggs Easter Hamper contains:

• The Egg Nest – six hollow mini eggs in three different flavours, dark chocolate with ginger, white chocolate with raspberry and very dark chocolate with butterscotch. Each flavoured egg is the size of a hen’s egg, approximately 60mm tall.
• Milk chocolate mini eggs – 160g of mini eggs, milk chocolate shells filled with a smooth hazelnut praline.
• Chocolate truffles – A bag of, melt in the mouth, Milking Maid chocolate truffles, 43% cocoa from Venezuela blended with butter, cream and milk.
• Orange and Geranium Emperor Bar – A 100g dark chocolate bar, 73% cocoa flavoured with orange and geranium oil.

Presented in a black box with a green ribbon and Easter themed tag, this chocolate hamper makes a great Easter gift and a wonderful way to explore the flavours from the Montezuma’s chocolate range.

£24.99

Labelled: GM Free, Additive Free, Colouring Free, Preservative Free, Vegetarian, Organic and Gluten Free.

A little box of organic mini chocolate Easter Eggs with a delicious milk chocolate hazelnut praline filling.

The chocolate mini eggs come in a brightly coloured box, decorated with sunflowers, lady birds and butterfly’s – just right for the spring and Easter. The box also has a little window so you can see the eggs inside.

Each of the eleven mini eggs are the same, each with an organic milk chocolate shell that yields a good snap when bitten into, inside is a rather dense and very tasty hazelnut praline, the outer shell and the chocolate filling combine to give an almost chewy consistency – very pleasant and very appealing.

£5.49, 160g.

Labelled: GM Free, Additive Free, Colouring Free, Preservative Free, Vegetarian, Organic and Gluten Free.

1. England
2. Ireland
3. Scotland
4. Wales

With Easter not to far away and the long weekend ahead, it is a good time to start planning your Easter activities and of course the all important Easter Egg hunt.

Cadbury and the National Trust are not the only people the have organised events, Easter Egg Trail, below are links to tourist board sites for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Hopefully you will be able to find something close to you.

England

On the Visit Britain site is a very useful “events and things to see and do” finder, enter your town, region or area (but not post code) and you can find things to do in your area or a search of the site brings up all the Easter Egg hunts.

Ireland

A quick search of the Discover Ireland website brings up fourteen results for Easter Egg Hunts. They also have “Festival or Event”, “Accommodation” and “Things to See & Do” finders on each page – though nothing about Easter.

Scotland

Visit Scotland have a page all about Easter events; egg hunts, egg rolling and egg painting,  including one very fun sounding Easter Egg hunt in a maze!

Wales

The Visit Wales site has a page for Easter, with days out and events. I could not find a search box on the site to look for egg hunts – but the page does link to its own blog that lists the National Trust event in Wales.

Montezuma’s Easter ranges change year on year, the best match to the Easter Chocolate Goodie Box is the Swallowtail Easter Hamper which is filled with Easter chocolate.

A goodie box filled with a selection of milk chocolate and dark chocolate Easter treats from Montezuma’s.

Handmade in the countryside of Sussex with all certified organic ingredients, and packaged in recyclable materials – this goodie box is the ethical and green Easter chocolate choice.

Montezuma’s Easter Chocolate Goodie Box contains:

Two Montezuma’s Easter Eggs:

• Free Range Egg Smooth Milk, very smooth and creamy hollow docerated egg 150g
• Free Range Egg Very Dark, a 150g dairy free hollow chocolate Easter Egg.

Two boxes of chocolate bunnies:

• A 90g box of Cheeky Bunnies Organic Milk Chocolate
• Oragnic Dark Chocolate Cheeky Bunnies, dairy free also in a 90g box.

Two boxes of chocolate mini eggs:

• Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut Mini Eggs, mini egg shells filled with milk chocolate hazelnut praline 160g.
• 160g of dark chocolate mini eggs filled with sticky caramel.

All presented in a beautiful black gift box, tied with a yellow Montezuma’s ribbon.

£34.99

Labelled: GM Free, Additive Free, Colouring Free, Preservative Free, Vegetarian, Organic and Gluten Free.

A milk caramel chocolate “Scrambled Egg” with six salted caramels from Hotel Chocolat.

Made from caramel flavoured milk chocolate, the egg is decorated with hand piped dark chocolate and naturally coloured white chocolates, giving the “scrambled” look and making each one unique.

The egg has beautiful sweet caramel aroma which escapes when you open the box, the milk chocolate is smooth and creamy with a mellow caramel flavour subtlety changes with each mouthful depending on the amount of white or dark chocolate, so the chocolate is different with each bite.

As if the striking egg wasn’t enough by itself, it also comes with a box of six salted caramel chocolates, each chunky chocolate is square with the a square Union Jack design and finished with the Hotel Chocolat “wax seal” in the same colour as the white chocolate on the egg.

This is my favourite egg so far this year, a good balance of caramel to chocolate, wow factor and wonderful flavour nuances. The Caramel Easter Egg is one of five luxury Scrambled Eggs from Hotel Chocolat. I just wish I could have them all.

£15.00, 220g.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Alcohol Free.

This Easter egg has beem replaced by the Oeuf amande, Dark chocolate Easter egg.

A suave and elegant dark chocolate egg, the Oeuf Orfevre an Easter Egg with French sophistication and charm.

Oeuf Orfevre is French for the Goldsmith Egg and the name refers to the silver and gold leaf used to decorate the outside of this chic egg.

Made from 64% cocoa dark chocolate, this hollow egg has a rich gloss and lustre complimented by the 22 caret gold and silver leaf, adding to the overall classic and expensive look. Inside the egg are seventeen croquant dark chocolate mini eggs, also speckled with gold. This is the large version, standing approximately 15cm tall, a smaller egg is also available.

A dark chocolate Easter Egg with flair.

£25.99, 340g.

Meet “Warren” the giant milk chocolate Easter bunny from Thorntons.

Standing a very tall 47cm tall, that’s a massive 18 and half inches! And weighing 1.5kg he is the largest chocolate bunny around!

Affectionately known as Warren by all at Thorntons, he is sculpted from milk chocolate, with a very cute face and huge smile, one ear is bent over and he clutching a basket of eggs.

An adorable novelty chocolate model, pefect for a whole family to nibble on or a gift for a very very lucky person! And if you are giving this very large chocolate bunny as a gift you can have the lucky recipient’s name iced on his tummy for free.

£49.99, 1500g.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

Something a little bit different and a bit quirky an Easter Egg sandwich from Hotel Chocolat.

Two, quite thick slabs of 70% cocoa dark chocolate studded with cocoa nibs for crunch and texture, are sandwiched between two elegantly decorated Easter Egg shell halves which are also dark chocolate.

The two halves are then placed back to back in a rather ingenious box that folds out from a triangle to flat, leaving the little sandwich egg standing proudly in the middle.

The chocolate is smooth with a good rich flavour, but is not too strong or over the top, the cocoa nibs give a good soft crunch to the chocolate really add to the dark chocolate flavour.

All of Hotel Chocolat’s Sandwich Eggs are packed with flavour, are beautifully designed and have a fun element to them. The Dairy Free Easter Egg Sandwich would make a great chocolate gift for adults and children – even with the cocoa nibs.

£8.00, 100g.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Alcohol Free, Dairy Free and Vegan.

A selection of Green & Black’s most popular Easter Eggs and miniature chocolate bar collections, in a re-useable gift bag.

Perfect for sharing and buying all of your Easter chocolate at once, the Easter Eggs and chocolate come in a gift bag is made of jute, a fibre that is natural, organic, bio-degradable and recyclable and environmentally friendly.

The Green & Black’s Easter Egg gift bag contains:

Two extra thick eggs:

• 1 x 180g Milk Chocolate Thick Shelled Butterscotch Egg
• 1 x 180g Maya Gold Dark Chocolate Thick Shelled Easter Egg

Two smaller hollow eggs:

• 1 x 110g Dark 70% Chocolate Egg
• 1 x 110g Milk Chocolate Egg

And two Green & Black’s miniature chocolate bar collections:

• 1x 180g Organic Milk & White Miniature Bar Collection – 12 x 15g Bars; White Chocolate, Creamy Milk Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Milk with Butterscotch and Milk with Almond
• 1x 180g Organic Miniature Bar Collection – 12 x 15g Bars; Dark Chocolate,, Milk Chocolate, Milk with Butterscotch and Milk with Almond, Dark with Cherry, Dark with Ginger

Available exclusively from Green & Black’s Direct.

£21.60.

Labelled: Organic.

Cadbury’s Super Easter Selection Pack, filled with lots and lots of mini eggs and little eggs and a selection of the bigger eggs with chocolate.

A good selection of Easter Eggs from Cadbury, perfect for a small family, a few kids or for friends to share, the easy and cheap bulk buy option as they are all in one box.

With the choice of eggs in this pack you can have your own Easter Egg hunt, Easter Eggs and treats, the Cadbury Easter Eggs Selection Pack contains:

• A large Cadbury Wispa Egg, 313g
• Cadbury Mini Egg,162g medium sized egg.
• A small Creme Egg egg, 96g.
• A three pack of Cadbury Caramel eggs.
• An Easter Egg Trial pack.
• Two Cadbury Dairy Milk Eggheads.

Something for everybody, and all for just £18.00.

These mini chocolate Easter eggs are Out of Stock, but Beau Bunny’s Easter Egg Hunt are a great alternative.

A box of hollow, foil wrapped egg sized Easter eggs from Hotel Chocolat.

50 milk chocolate eggs, each egg is 4cm x 6cm, about the same size as a normal egg, perfect for your own Easter Egg hunts, Easter weekend events, Easter chocolate gifts and goodie bags.

Made from smooth, quality, milk chocolate and individually wrapped in silver foil, featuring the Hotel Chocolat cocoa pod design.

£35.00, 50 eggs.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Nut Free, Alcohol Free and Gluten Free.

Fifteen, Hotel Chocolat, filled chocolate mini eggs presented as a selection box, a great alternative to an Easter egg or as a gift to share.

The luxury mini eggs have crisp outer shells made of dark, white and milk chocolate, and are filled with a gorgeous selection of smooth centres, just like egg-shaped chocolate truffles.

On the ends of the eggs are bright dots of colour, chocolate coloured with natural colouring, which correspond to the menu card tucked into the back of the box.

The Easter H-box has fifteen of the cute little eggs, in seven different flavours:

• Dark Praline: A dark chocolate shell, that has a very satisfying snap when you bite into it, filled with a well-flavoured hazelnut praline enhanced by the 70% cocoa chocolate.
• Advocaat Truffle: Milk chocolate ganache with a splash of Advocaat liqueur, which keep the smooth centre relaxed and adds a subtle “egg custard” flavour.
• Amaretto Truffle: An elegant milk chocolate and cream ganache with a good dash of Amaretto, encased in a mellow milk shell.
• Caramel Egg: Soft, mellow and extremely comforting runny caramel encased in a creamy milk chocolate shell and finished with an all-natural yellow dot.
• Berry Mousse: A white chocolate whipped mousse, in a white chocolate shell, with raspberries and strawberries, which gives the mousse a fresh flavour and a wonderful texture.
• Banana Split: A rich and sticky banana butter caramel, which tastes just like real caramelised bananas, in a 40% cocoa milk chocolate shell.
• Milk Praline: A crisp milk chocolate egg shell with an incredibly smooth milk chocolate and hazelnut praline, simple but delicious.

You get two of each flavour and three of one, because of the odd number in the box. I had three of the Milk Praline eggs, which I was very happy about as they are one of my favourites, along with the Banana Split, Dark Praline and Berry Mousse.

All of the eggs are very moreish, but you can get refills! Each of the flavours are available in 100g pots – but only from the shops, you can find your nearest Hotel Chocolat shop on their website – www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/stores.

Ideal for Easter – or a treat!

£11.00, 185g.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

Adventure in Easter chocolate with a wide selection of Easter Eggs, Easter chocolate and a bottle of Prosecco from the Hotel Chocolat Easter range, presented in a chic hamper, idea for sharing or giving as a very generous gift.

The Adventure Easter Hamper is from the Room Service hampers range, luxury chocolate hampers for all occasions ranging from £50 to £500, with limited and special edition Easter chocolates alongside a bottle of Prosecco, a dry sparkling white wine.

The hamper contains:

Three Easter Eggs: (well two and a half)

• The Serious Dark Fix™ Extra Thick Easter Egg, half of an extra thick 70% dark chocolate egg with dark chocolate chocolates.
• Milk Scrambled Easter Egg™, a brightly decorated egg with a collection of six mellow milk chocolates.
• Eton Mess Easter Egg Sandwich™, white chocolate with strawberry and meringue pieces.

Three Easter Chocolate Boxes

• The Sleekster Easter Egg Box Selection, thirty flavoured mini eggs in a selection box.
• Eggs & Soldiers, creamy milk chocolate egg halves with white chocolate soldiers to dip.
• Sticky Toffee Easter Eggies, dark chocolate eggs with a sticky toffee filling.

Two Chocolate Treats

• Caramel Drops
• Milk Scrambled Egg Mini Slab

A selection of milk, dark and white chocolate in a luxury chocolate hamper for Easter.

£100.00.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

The Thorntons “No Added Sugar” Diabetic Easter Egg comes with a bag of diabetic chocolate mini eggs in foil and Happy Easter engraved into the chocolate on the front. The style and design of the Easter egg box means this egg can be for all age ranges.

£6.50 205g of milk chocolate, Easter egg and diabetic mini eggs.

Labelled: Diabetic, Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

Thorntons also have a rather large diabetic chocolate range: Thorntons No Added Sugar Chocolate Collection

Now, there is some debate about diabetic Easter eggs, well diabetic chocolate in general. Some say there is no need for diabetic chocolate, as limiting the amount of chocolate consumed has the same effect. The problem seems to be two fold; firstly that sugar in diabetic chocolate is replaced with nutritive sweeteners, in this case polyols.  Guidelines state that you should have no more than 20g per day, some diabetic chocolate contains a lot more – I don’t know the exact amount in the Thorntons Diabetic Egg and secondly that people assume that items labelled ‘diabetic’ will be suitable for all diabetics and provide some benefit.

Whilst I totally agree that it can be confusing and unclear as to what you can and cannot eat as a diabetic and the term used as a label can be misleading, the range is now called “No Added Sugar Diabetic”. All the offered alternatives to diabetic chocolate seem to be small amounts of high cocoa content dark chocolate; my problem is that not everyone likes dark chocolate.

So if you do decide to treat yourself to a Thorntons Diabetic Easter Egg or buy one for someone please read the label and if you don’t understand it ask someone who does.

Further reading:

• Hotel Chocolat – Diabetic Chocolate
• Diabetes UK
• Diabetes.co.uk – the global diabetes community – these would be the “ask someone who does” people.
• Watchdog – Diabetic ‘treats’ not so sweet

Hotel Chocolat has released a sneak preview of their wonderful chocolate Easter eggs for 2010, available from the 15th of February – but you can order them now and they will deliver them when they are in stock. So you can beat the rush and make sure you get the Easter egg you want before they all sell out.

The 2010 Easter Eggs from Hotel Chocolat have been given a fun and colourful makeover. Last years Cocoa Pod egg has been replaced with new Scrambled Eggs, but the rest of Hotel Chocolat Easter eggs, happily, remain the same.

Giant Easter Eggs

The two largest Easter eggs are the gigantic Ostrich eggs, thick chocolate shells with a two layer selection box of Hotel Chocolat chocolates.

• The Milk Ostrich Easter Egg™
• The Dark Ostrich Easter Egg™

They are £60.00 each, both well over one kilo in weight and are very impressive, they make great gifts for a couple or family as they are so large.

Extra Thick Easter Eggs

Extra thick milk chocolate and dark chocolate Easter eggs, two chunky shell halves filled with a selection of Easter chocolate treats.

• The Eggsibitionist™
• The Serious Dark Fix™
• Your Eggsellency™
• You Crack Me Up™
• Rocky Road To Caramel™

Each chunky egg is £22.00 and with five to choose from, everyone will have a favourite.

Scrambled Egg Easter Eggs

New for 2010, Scrambled Eggs, very creative and stylish little chocolate Easter eggs along side six matching chocolates in a display box.

• Milk Scrambled Easter Egg™
• Boozy Scrambled Easter Egg™
• Caramel Scrambled Easter Egg™
• Dark Scrambled Easter Egg™ Vegan / Dairy Free
• White Scrambled Easter Egg™

Each egg is colourfully decorated, using natural colouring, with scrambled swirls making every egg unique. Five to choose from, £15.00 each.

Easter Egg Sandwiches™

Hotel Chocolat’s flavoured Easter eggs, the Egg Sandwiches. Two slabs of flavoured chocolate sandwiched between to egg halves.

• Creamed Caramel Egg Sandwich™
• Chilli Combo Egg Sandwich™
• Eton Mess Egg Sandwich™
• Smooth Praline Egg Sandwich™
• Full On Dark Egg Sandwich™ Vegan / Dairy Free

These cute eggs are £7.00 each, or any combination of four Egg Sandwiches for £24.00.

These are just the Easter Eggs from Hotel Chocolat’s Easter chocolate range, easily the best and largest chocolate selection for Easter.

Easter Sunday 2013 is Sunday the 31st of March.

Easter Day, as it is also known, always falls on a Sunday, but the date does change; Easter can fall between March 22nd and April 25th, this is because the actual date worked out by the phases of the moon and the solar year, this is called the lunisolar calendar.

The way it is worked out is very complex, and totally beyond me, but if you are interested you can find all the information on wikipedia – Easter#Date_of_Easter, if you can make sense of it please do let me know.

Easter 2012-2015

Other “Chocolate” Events

Easter is probably the most celebrated “chocolate” day, Easter Eggs, chocolate Easter bunnies and novelty Easter chocolate. But there are other days that be, and are, enjoyed with chocolate.

Any excuse for chocolate!

The Hotel Chocolat Easter Room Service Easter is no longer available; the only Easter hamper from Hotel Chocolat is The Easter Basket Collection.

A fabulous Easter hamper that is packed full of yummy Hotel Chocolat chocolate goodies.

The ultimate in Easter gifts, a delicious selection of chocolate from the Hotel Chocolat Easter collection, beautifully presented in a wooden crate, the hamper is part of the converted Room Service Hampers range.

Including two halves of the most popular chocolate Easter eggs, the scrummy milk and dark chocolate Eggies – filled smooth hazelnut praline and soft vanilla-accented chocolate, three unique chocolate slabs that are only available in the Easter hamper and other treats. Ideal for the sharing and experiencing Hotel Chocolat’s expertise.

The Easter Hamper contents:

• Half of a Your Eggsellency Egg
• Half a You Crack Me Up Egg
• Milk Chocolate Munchkins (180g)
• Milk Chocolate Eggies (120g)
• Dark Chocolate Eggies (120g)
• Caramel Drops (180g)
• 3 Easter slabs (3x100g)

£50.00

Labelled: Vegetarian.

A chocolate egg collection that features the four, medium sized, thick shelled chocolate Easter eggs from Green & Black’s.

Four beautiful chocolate Easter eggs, each the same size making this the ideal collection for sharing – without anyone getting jealous.

The Green & Black’s medium chocolate Easter egg collection contains the Maya Gold egg, made from the same chocolate the Maya Gold bar was the first UK produce to be awarded the fair trade mark from the Fairtrade Foundation. Dark chocolate infused with orange and spices.

Green & Black’s Easter Eggs:

• 1 x 180g Milk Chocolate Thick Shelled Egg
• 1 x 180g Maya Gold Dark Chocolate Thick Shelled Easter Egg
• 1 x 180g http://www.chocolate-easter-eggs.co.uk/green-blacks-organic-dark-chocolate-easter-egg-180gDark 70% Chocolate Thick Shelled Egg[/intlink]
• 1 x 180g Milk Chocolate Thick Shelled Butterscotch Egg[/intlink]

The chocolate collection is finished off with a 100g carton of milk chocolate mini eggs, with a smooth milk chocolate centres.

£30.00, 820g.

This is the largest hamper from Cadburys a wonderful selection of chocolate bars, eggs, mini eggs and gifts. With well over one hundred pieces of Cadburys chocolate to choose from in the Deluxe Easter Hamper.

The hamper contains:

Three Cadburys Easter Eggs: One medium sized Crunchie Egg – 195g, one Cadburys Mini Eggs Easter Egg – 190g and one small Cadburys Creme Egg Egg – 98g.

A selection of mini eggs:

• Mini Creme Egg Tube, 160g
• 6x Creme Egg Pack, 234g
• 3x Caramel Egg 117g
• Mini Egg Tube 45g

Three Boxes of Cadburys Chocolates: one Cadburys Roses – 220g, one Cadbury Variety Share Box – 245g and one Cadburys Milk Tray, 200g.

Four pack of five chocolate bars:

• Flake (5 pack)
• Crunchie (5 pack)
• Twirl (5 pack)
• Curly Wurly (5 pack)

A Easter Chocolate Treatsize Box 80 bars treatsize bars of Dairy Milk; Dairy Milk Bubbly; Dairy Milk Caramel; Fudge and Crunchie.

And a 230g Dairy Milk bar, a 800g tin of Liquorice Allsorts and to finish it all off a Soft Fluffy Chick.

£50.00

With so much chocolate this is the perfect chocolate hamper for a lot of people, ideal for an Easter fete or event and great for sharing with family or friends. The Cadburys Deluxe Hamper does contain a wide variety of chocolate from the Cadburys range, but not that many Easter eggs, if you are looking for more of an Easter egg selection, try the http://www.chocolate-easter-eggs.co.uk/cadburys-easter-sharing-selectionCadburys Easter Chocolate Sharing Selection[/intlink] or the Cadburys Super Egg Pack.

The biggest Easter egg for 2009! The massive Serious Dark Fix Ostrich Egg from Hotel Chocolat is just over 11inces tall (285mm) and roughly 1.5kg in weight.

Two thick shells made from 74% dark chocolate, covered in almond pieces and then coated again in even more chocolate – which gives mammoth shells a wonderful texture and a very gratifying crunch.

To accompany the giant egg is a selection of sixteen elegant truffles and chocolates including:

• Orange & Lemon Sandwich: Two smooth layers of hazelnut praline – one with Valencia orange oil, the other with essential oil of lemon.
• Blackcurrant & Champagne: Tangy blackcurrant compote in a light crème with a splash or two of Marc de Champagne.
• Gianduja Crest: An ultra smooth blend of milk and white chocolate and finely milled hazelnuts.
• Coffee Caramel: Caramel and white chocolate with finely milled hazelnuts and a dash of coffee.
• Caramel & Rum Truffle: Smooth chocolate with a generous splash of warming rum.
• Chunky Nut: A crunch-filled praline with roughly chopped hazelnuts, pistachios and almonds, topped with a whole hazelnut.
• Gin Truffle: Extremely soft chocolate and cream ganache with a good measure of Dutch courage.
• Macadamia Bite: Naturally creamy macadamia nut paste, topped with a whole macadamia.

Along with eight rather beautifully decorated mini eggs, decorated using natural colours that contrast exquisitely with the deep tones of the chocolate, each with a generous dash of alcohol: Whisky Caramel, Rum and Raisin Ganache, Pink Marc de Champagne Ganache and Grand Marnier with Vanilla.

AND as if that wasn’t enough, two of the famous Hotel Chocolat mini slabs, one each of the:

• Cherry Fusion: Cherry crisps blended with white chocolate then stirred with 74% dark chocolate.
• St Lucia Dark: dark chocolate cast in Hotel Chocolat’s special single origin St Lucia chocolate.

Even the box the egg is presented in is absolutely stunning, white and black with a very chic shade of purple. The shells are wrapped in silver foil, tied with a ribbon and rests in a nest of purple paper twists.

Filled to the brim with a selection of chocolates and slabs this extra large Easter egg is basically a hamper, with the shell as the edible basket.

£50.00 – Approximately 1.5kg of serious chocolate.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

For those that are not dark chocolate lovers the other Ostrich sized Easter egg, the http://www.chocolate-easter-eggs.co.uk/hotel-chocolat-rocky-road-to-caramellow-ostrich-chocolate-easter-egghuge Rocky Road to Caramellow[/intlink], is mainly milk chocolate, it’s the same size but just a tiny bit lighter, so little difference you won’t even notice.

An egg that really puts a smile on your face, or makes you frown or just confuses you… The extremely cute Tiddly Pot Easter eggs from Hotel Chocolat are really irresistible.

There are three eggs, sold separately, each with its own charming personality. Happy, shown above, confused and grumpy.

Packaged in a bright and lively box, each hollow 40% milk chocolate egg also comes with a pot full of solid milk chocolate figures fun Pod Bunnies and chocolate Chirpy Chicks.

Perfect for children or big kids!

£7.00 per egg, for approximately 80g of milk chocolate – or all three for £18.00.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Gluten Free and Alcohol Free.

These Cadbury eggs have been discontinued, the closest match is the Dairy Milk Easter Egg – Large.

Two large Cadburys Collection Eggs, milk chocolate and caramel both in presentation tins.

Three rather fabulous Cadburys mini truffle eggs, inside an egg, inside an egg! The largest egg has a thick hollow shell, in side that egg is another chocolate egg and in the centre are a trio of truffle mini eggs.

One egg is milk chocolate and the other is delicious caramel, so altogether you get six mini eggs and four larger eggs. Each Cadburys Collection Egg comes wrapped in foil nestled in a shimmering purple netting bag inside a Cadburys presentation tin.

£20.00, 2 x 430g

The Strawberry Sensation Easter egg has been replaced with the Raspberry Eton Mess Egg Sandwich also from Hotel Chocolat.

Strawberry and white chocolate is a wonderful combination, creamy white chocolate with the ever so slight strawberry tang, add to that crisp meringue pieces and you have a “Strawberry Sensation”.

Then press the two slabs of white chocolate between hollow two white chocolate shells and you have the Strawberry Sensation Easter Egg Sandwich.

This rather fun and unusual Easter egg is one of five, individually flavoured, Egg Sandwiches from the Hotel Chocolat, who currently have a multi-buy offer on the cute eggs. £6.00 each or £20.00 for any combination of 4 (saving you £4.00) Hotel Chocolat Easter Egg Sandwiches.

£6.00 for 100g of rather beautiful looking strawberry flavoured white chocolate Easter egg.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Alcohol Free.

A gorgeous egg and a truffle fix at the same time, the luxury milk chocolate Easter egg with a selection of the most popular Montezuma’s truffles.

Thick, milk chocolate, hollow shell drizzled in the same milk chocolate to create a visually stunning and tactile decorative effect.

The truffles with the egg are from the Grand Truffle Collection, the most popular truffle collection by Montezuma’s.

The collection includes:

• Venezuela: Milking Maid: Creamy milk chocolate truffle made with Venezuelan cocoa
• Dominican Republic: Eclipse Simple dark truffle made with 73% cocoa
• Sweet Summertime: Raspberries with white chocolate
• Cherry Can: Cherry and dark chocolate

Please note these may not be the truffles that actually come with the egg, they are truffles from the collection that may be included.

And for the dark chocolate lover, the Truffle Egg: Dark.

£16.99 for 400g of milk chocolate and truffles.

Labelled: GM Free, Preservatives / Additive / Colouring Free, Soya Free, Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

A fun and unusual Easter egg made from Cadburys milk chocolate, an Easter egg in the shape of a full sized rugby ball. ‘SCRUM’-ptious Cadbury milk chocolate! You can’t beat a good pun…

Its not technically an Easter egg as it’s not specifically made for Easter – but that’s just splitting hairs.

Makes a great gift for any rugby fan, regardless of the time of year, Cadburys also do the Rugby ball egg as part of a Beer & Rugby Ball set, for the “big kids”.

The ball is made from a massive 800g of Cadbury milk chocolate and is hollow.

£17.00, 800g.

There is something special about Green & Black’s 70% dark chocolate; rich dark taste, a beautifully smooth texture and a deep colour to the chocolate.

Organically produced high-quality bittersweet dark chocolate, crafted into a thick shelled Easter egg. A very popular egg, I always have one of these at Easter – even if I buy it myself. And it has my personal recommendation for anyone wanting to try dark chocolate, as it is not too bitter.

Also availible as part of the Dark Easter Eggs Collection, this is the egg (without the chocolate bars) in the http://www.chocolate-easter-eggs.co.uk/green-blacks-organic-thick-shelled-dark-chocolate-cherry-ginger-eggOrganic Thick-Shelled Dark Chocolate Cherry & Ginger Egg[/intlink].

£5.99, 180g of organic 70% dark chocolate.

Labelled: Organic and Vegetarian.

Rich dark vegan chocolate Easter egg with a delightful selection of truffles and seriously dark pralines – a must for dark chocolate lovers.

Smooth 74% cocoa dark chocolate with deep rich cocoa tones, accompanied by dark chocolate house recipes including gianduja, aromatic Valencia orange and warming chilli truffles.

One of five Cocoa Pod eggs from Hotel Chocolat inspired the artistry of antique chocolate moulds creating beatiful and tactile egg shells.

£12.00 , approximately 220g.

Labelled: Vegan / Dairy Free, Vegetarian, Alcohol Free and Gluten Free.

A fun collection of favourites from Cadburys, 4 eggs, a section of mini eggs and an Easter egg hunt pack all in a family sized case of chocolate.

A great idea for a family or someone buying a lot of eggs.

The collection includes:

Cadburys Easter Eggs:

• Cadbury Wispa Egg 313g
• Roses Large Egg 296g
• Flake Egg 173g
• Dairy Milk Buttons Egg 105g

Cadburys Chocolate:

• Easter Trail Egg Hunt Pack 240g
• 6 x Pack Cadbury Creme Eggs 234g
• 3 x Egg Heads 77g
• Cadbury Easter Chick CDM Buttons 185g
• 3x Caramel Eggs 117g
• Mini Eggs bag 100g
• Mini Eggs Tube 120g

Cadbury Easter Chick Buttons (185g) and a Easter Trail Egg Hunt Pack (240g).

Easter eggs, chocolate and all you need for an Easter egg hunt all in one box.

£30.00

This dairy free Easter egg is one of two eggs exclusively available online, and only from the Thorntons site, the other is a Fair Trade egg – with the same packaging but in gold foil.

The smart but universal presentation of green foil and a ribbon tied bag means this dark chocolate Easter egg is visually suitable for all ages.

This is more than just a Dairy Free dark chocolate Easter egg, “It has been made under strictly controlled conditions to prevent any cross contamination from nuts, dairy, egg and gluten.” quoted from Thorntons website.

I have taken that to mean that it is suitable for vegans and people with some food intolerances and food allergies;

• Vegan, as it is dairy free and egg free.
• Dairy Free, suitable for anyone with lactose intolerance.
• Nut Free, for anyone with nut allergies.
• Egg free, for anyone with egg allergies.
• Gluten Free, suitable for anyone with a wheat allergy or Celiac/Coeliac disease.

However as the egg is not specifically labelled as any of the above, that does mean there is no guarantee. As always, it is always best to check.

Allergy UK have a useful website with information on allergies and food intolerance.

I have to say considering the “strictly controlled conditions” this egg was made in, at only £6.50 it seems rather good value for money, especially when you consider the difference in price of organic and non-organic food.

£6.50, 120g of dark dairy free chocolate.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Dairy Free and Gluten Free.

Fair Trade, vegan Easter egg with brazil nuts, covered in dark chocolate.

Smooth rich, 70% dark Ghanaian chocolate Easter egg 100g and 80g of Brazil Nuts covered in the same dark chocolate by Divine,

Presented in a Chic black and gold box, covered in the traditional West African Adinkra symbols, this is an ideal gift egg.

This egg is labelled vegetarian on some sites and vegan on others, so I contacted Divine and they say this egg is a possible choice for vegans, but they cannot guarantee these products are totally dairy free, as milk is used elsewhere in the factory. I have labelled it vegan, so that it can be found on my site and to give you some more choice.

£4.99 for 180g of Divine dark chocolate.

Labelled: Fair Trade, Vegetarian, Vegan / Dairy Free and Gluten Free.

This organic white chocolate egg has been discontinued, A very similar, but smaller egg would be Montezuma’s Organic White Chocolate Chunky Egg.

This beautiful egg is from the “Free Range” eggs from Montezuma’s, the chocolatiers at Monty’s were given free range to design this years range.

There are three eggs in the Free Range collection, this stunning white creation, a milk chocolate egg and a deeply dark egg, which is vegan. The patterns on the shell of the eggs, in this case organic white chocolate, are hand piped and unique to each and egg.

The egg comes wrapped in cellophane, which has the Montezuma’s logo printed on, and tied with a bright yellow bow. They also have a little stand, inside the packaging, so that they are free standing – so you can admire them first!

£12.95, 280g of skilfully crafted chocolate.

Labelled: GM Free, Preservatives / Additive / Colouring Free, Vegetarian, Organic and Gluten Free.

This is a really fun idea for an Easter egg, a full sized football made from chocolate!

Great for any football fan of all ages, the football is hollow and made from a huge 1kg of Cadburys milk chocolate.

Just to be clear – it’s the same size as a football not the same size as the picture and it’s not specifically made for Easter, so it can also be given as a unique gift for other occasions.

You can also get, from the Cadburys site, a chocolate football and beer gift set – for the “kid at heart”.

£18.00, 1kg.

180g of thick shelled dark chocolate egg with two Green & Black’s 100g bars. A total 380g of Easter joy in one box.

The organic egg is 70% cocoa solids, made from quality Trinitario beans, giving the signature dark and rich taste Green & Black’s are known for.

The Ginger bar: Crystallised pieces of organic ginger give the chocolate warmth that lifts the flavour notes of the cocoa.

The Cherry bar: Voted the Best New Organic Product at the Natural products Show 2004, in contrast to the ginger bar, the sharp tang of cherries complement the flavour of the gives the 60% dark chocolate.

The combination of the plain egg and the two flavoured bars highlights the complexity of dark chocolate and shows how adding other quality ingredients can change the chocolate flavour. This egg is also part of the Dark Easter Eggs Collection by Green & Black’s.

£10.99 380g

Labelled: Organic, Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

Mix together good chocolate, a sense of humour and a good cause – what do you get?

Ethical fair trade milk chocolate, in round balls with red foil that look like mini red noses made in partnership with Comic Relief, Divine Chocolate Ltd and Kuapa Kokoo, with 10% of the sale going towards Comic Relief, Red Nose Day 2009 – which would not fit in the label so they called it Dubble!

Along with the chocolate Red Noses are the Dubble chocolate bars, Easter eggs and mini speckled eggs. The Ethical EthicalSuperstore also have a cracking way to Dubble your fundraising with the Dubble Red Nose Day Supporter Pack, so you can show your support for Comic Relief and Red Nose Day.

Dubble chocolate is available online from EthicalSuperstore, Traidcraft, A Lot of Chocolate and Goodness Direct. And at your local Sainsbury’s – the mini red noses are only stocked in selected Sainsbury’s stores, but you should have no trubble find the others.

£1.49 for 90g of milk chocolate – 10% goes to Comic Relief.

Labelled: Fair Trade.

“Pure White” Hotel Chocolat white chocolate, engraved cocoa pod Easter egg, simple heavenly. This is the luxury white chocolate Easter egg option for the white chocolate lover.

Creamy chocolate egg with a selection of the most delightful praline and butter creams recipes, including my favourite combination of lemon and white chocolate, in separate box.

This elegant white Easter egg is one of five from the Engraved Cocoa Pod Easter Eggs by Hotel Chocolat.

Of the rather limited amount of white chocolate Easter eggs, this would be my “top pick” not only because it is a Hotel Chocolat egg, but also the way its looks and the way it is presented.

225g of white chocolate Easter egg and milk and white chocolate chocolates for £12.00.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Gluten Free and Alcohol Free.

It just wouldn’t be Easter without Cadburys chocolate especially Cadburys cream eggs.

They always bring a smile to my face, you see them starting to appear in shops, then you see the fantastic adverts on telly, then you have to buy one to see if they taste the same as last year, goo on admit it you do too.

This huge box of 48 Cadburys Cream Eggs – milk chocolate eggs shells with a soft white fondant centre and sweet yellow yolk – is fantastic for sharing, ideal for an Easter egg hunt or for Easter parties to go in goody bags. And they do come in the Creme Egg box, so you can even play shop!

You can also get Cadbury Creme Egg Gift Pack, 21 creme eggs in packs of 3 and two very cute soft toy fluffy chicks, and Cadbury Creme Egg Passion, a fun Cream egg themed hamper, both from the Cadburys chocolate website.

Make you sure you check out the Creme Egg site, it has a rather fun countdown to the end Creme egg season, a lots of other goo-ey things – great for kids.

How do you eat yours?

£24.00 for 48 milk Cadburys chocolate eggs, approximately 1872g.

Fair Trade chocolate Easter egg by Divine, milk chocolate egg with 6 hand finished Marc de Champagne truffles.

Made from cocoa grown by Kuapa Kokoo in Ghana, and 100% natural ingredients, this delicious Easter gift from Divine is an irresistible indulgence. Heavenly Chocolate with a heart.

£9.99 for 165g of luxury Fair Trade chocolate.

For more information on Divine and fair trade chocolate visit the Divine site.

Labelled: Fair Trade.

I have converted the Hotel Chocolat Blueberry Easter Egg Sandwich since it was first released, it looks exquisite – I’m just too scared to buy one in case I never eat at and just stare at it, and that would just be a total waste of chocolate!

A heavenly fusion of dark chocolate and blueberry flavoured white chocolate, sandwiched between two halves of a hollow dark chocolate Easter egg, with a purple dot on it.

The Blueberry Easter egg is one of five Hotel Chocolat Easter Egg Sandwiches, each a different flavour. And Hotel Chocolat have a multi-buy offer for them – £20 for any combination of 4 Egg Sandwiches.

£6.00 for 100g of edible art with a blueberry flavour.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Alcohol Free and Gluten Free.

Booja Booja – Organic “Around Midnight Espresso” Easter egg, a stunningly beautiful gift egg containing three Booja Booja delicious truffles, flavoured with freshly roasted organic coffee – perfect for that Espresso hit.

Booja Booja Easter eggs do not have a chocolate shell; the outer egg is papier mâché and hand painted in Kashmir, inside is velvet-lined and then tied with ribbon.

Compared to other eggs, this may seem quite expensive – however Booja Booja truffles are a sheer delight. Well worth trying. Chocolate Trading Company Easter range

35g of organic coffee flavoured truffles in a keepsake egg £11.95.

Labelled: Organic, Vegan / Dairy Free and Gluten Free.

Looking for a vegan Easter egg? How about a box full of vegan mini eggs, delicately flavoured with orange and geranium. You get roughly 11 dark chocolate eggs per box.

Organic dark chocolate is blended with citrus and floral oils and then hand crafted into solid mini Easter eggs. Geranium and orange is a very popular flavour at Montezuma’s and features in a selection of their chocolate.

£4.95 for 160g of British handmade dark chocolate mini Easter eggs.

Montezuma’s do two other vegan Easter eggs the Giant Egg: Costa Rica and the Dark Free Range Egg, and also have a vegan truffle collection.

Labelled: GM Free, Preservatives / Additive / Colouring Free, Soya Free, Vegetarian, Vegan / Dairy Free, Organic, Gluten Free.

I do love Thorntons fudge, especially the vanilla and this luxury Easter egg has bits of fudge in the shell of the egg!

This milk chocolate eggs also comes with two bags of Thorntons vanilla fudge as well, so if you know anyone that loves fudge the “Love Fudge” Easter egg would be perfect.

The Easter egg comes in a rather nicely designed clear box, so you can see the Easter egg inside, with an orange, brown and beige pattern on it. You can also have a message iced onto the egg; see the Thorntons site for more details.

£12.00 for 635g milk chocolate Easter egg, I presume the weight includes the bags of fudge.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

A rather wonderful looking “Arty” milk chocolate organic Easter egg, made by The Chocolate Alchemist, you can buy it from the Natural Collection, which is where I saw it.

Contained in a clear plastic box to really show it off, the Squiggle organic Easter egg is hand-crafted using the finest quality ingredients.

Hollow with a thick, milk chocolate shell and then covered in orange squiggles all over the outside – I’m guessing from the name that it is orange flavoured, but there is only one way to find out.

I want to try this egg myself, but I also think it would make the perfect present for someone with an artistic side and a sense of the creativeness behind the design. 300g organic milk chocolate Easter egg for £12.95. Labelled: Organic.

There are two more organic Easter eggs available from “The Chocolate Alchemist” on the Natural Collection site, the Large Organic Milk Chocolate ‘Broken Egg’ Easter Egg – a rather fun looking egg, that has a broken on the from and the smaller, Organic Milk Chocolate Easter Egg Embedded With Chocolate Beans covered with bright multi-coloured beans.

This is one of my favourite Easter eggs from last year; the REALLY thick chocolate shell is split in two sections and wrapped as individual pieces then inside are little bags with the 12 flavoured mini eggs.

The The Eggsibitionist™ Extra Thick Easter Egg is a true delight from start to finish, it comes in a very chic black embossed box with a bright pink band around it. As you take off the band and open the box you are greeted with a keyhole cut out where you can just glimpse the egg inside. The stylish box, synonymous with Hotel Chocolat, makes this an ideal present.

A 147mm high 40% milk chocolate Easter egg and filled with twelve hand decorated mini eggs filled, delicious flavours including vanilla, orange, hazelnut, chocolate brownie and strawberry, approximately 380g of milk chocolate Easter egg and filled mini eggs for £20.00.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Alcohol Free.