Who said chocolate Easter eggs only come in boxes off a supermarket shelf? Not us. So why not have a go at making your own with our DIY chocolate egg-making guide. You can make dark ones, milk ones or even white ones. You can cover them in icing, glitter, flowers or sweets. You can wrap them in paper, bows or put a dozen in a basket. You can create your very own choccy masterpieces!
Here’s how you do it
What you need:
Good quality moulding chocolate. We recommend Belgian Couverture chocolate available from good supermarkets and online.
Plastic egg moulds. We recommend these from cake expert Jane Asher:
A cooking thermometer
Greaseproof paper
Cake decorations: coloured icing, sprinkles, edible flowers, glitter, etc
Instructions:
- Heat some water in a pan, until it is hot but not boiling.
- Half-fill a basin with chocolate, then stand the basin in the water and stir until the chocolate has melted.
- Plain chocolate should be heated to about 42 degrees celsius, and white and milk no higher than 44 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer, touch the chocolate with the flat of your little finger, it should be just warm.
- Hold the egg mould in the palm of your hand, ladle in the chocolate until it is a third full.
- Tilt the mould until chocolate covers the entire mould; tip excess chocolate back into the mould.
- Place the mould upside down on greaseproof paper for 10 minutes to dry. When dry, repeat the process until the chocolate shell is thick enough.
- Then repeat to form the other half of the egg.
- Put mould in fridge to solidify completely, a couple of hours should be enough.
- When solid, extract the eggs by gently and carefully pulling the sides of the mould outwards.
- Glue the two halves together by dipping the edge of one into molten chocolate and hold it against the other half to complete the egg.
- Get creative with your decorations.