Easter is a big chocolate holiday, competing with only Valentine’s Day for the top spot! What are some of your favorite Easter treats?

This week’s chocolate link roundup contain a lot of recipes I’d love to try, and hopefully will eventually. For now there just aren’t enough hours in the day!
~ Bird’s Nest Cookies from The Cooking Photographer
~ Sinfully Rich Dark Chocolate Pudding at The Hungry Mouse
~ Chocolate Egg With Dulce de Leche Pannacotta from Clumbsy Cookie
~ Pomegranate and Chocolate Tarts at Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives
~ Chocolate Peanut Butter Tortes from Annie’s Eats
~ Gooey Peanut Butter Brownies at My …read more

Two of the biggest food icons for Easter are now one: Chocolate and eggs.

Of course, the reality isn’t as gross as it may sound! These are just white chocolate, Rice Krispies cereal and red sugar:
Melt white chocolate chips over low heat on your stove. Pour into greased, horizontally split, plastic Easter eggs. Let cool and harden, then pop the white chocolate “egg whites” out of the plastic egg halves.
Melt yellow candy melts in microwave according to package directions, then mix with Rice Krispies until the consistency looks like real deviled egg mixture.
Spoon yellow mixture onto the hardened “egg white” halves …read more

This week’s link round up includes a lot of yummy spring, Easter and Passover treats that not only look delicious but also include lots of delicious chocolate!

~ Matzah Toffee from BitterSweet
~ Easter Bunny and Chicks on a Stick from Cake on the Brain
~ Homemade Chocolate Creme Eggs at Healthy Indulgences
~ Cadbury Creme Egg Brulees from Pie of the Tiger
~ Chick Cake Pops at Loves to Eat
~ Homemade Chocolate Filled Eggs from 2 Stews
~ Bite Size Easter Brownies at DesignerGirl007
~ Chocolate Mocha Mousse from NWI Tech
~ Chocolate Overdose Cake at Annie’s Eats
~ Cinnamon Chocolate Bundt Cake from The Food Librarian
~ …read more

Who other than the master of chocolate himself, Jacques Torres, could you bring something as amazing looking as these chocolate-covered marshmallow Peeps?

Available in dark and milk chocolate, the Easter staples are appropriate for both kids and adults. I definitely wouldn’t mind finding them in my basket!
Each 2 oz package contains four Peeps and costs $4.
Jacques also has traditional chocolate bunnies, peanut butter filled white chocolate eggs, and marshmallow egg lollipops.
[images: mrchocolate.com]

Vosges Chocolates has their chocolate Easter bunnies for sale, and these cute molded treats never fail to make me smile. How cute are they?

Instead of the traditional upright or crouching bunnies that show up in Easter baskets, these bunnies have cute floppy ears that are appealing to kids and adults alike.
And Vosges doesn’t do just regular chocolate — the bunnies are available in Red Fire (Mexican ancho & chipotle chillies, Ceylon cinnamon and 55% dark chocolate), Gianduja (almonds, caramelized hazelnut paste and milk chocolate), and Barcelona (hickory smoked almonds, grey sea salt and 41% deep milk chocolate). They’re currently …read more

I’ve written about a few ideas for using the cute seasonal pastel M&M’s this week and now have a giveaway for you to win some bags for yourself!

The pretty colors of the pastel M&M’s are the perfect addition to any spring craft or Easter basket and are available in all the standard M&M’s flavors — plain, peanut, almond and dark!
I’ve got four bags of Limited Edition seasonal M&M’s to giveaway to two winners (two bags each)!
To Enter:
Leave a comment here telling me what your favorite M&M’s are. Plain? Peanut? Dark? Almond? All of them?
That’s it — and there are no …read more

These are one of the cutest Spring/Easter crafts I’ve seen. The little chicks are another of the sweet ideas sent to me by M&M’s, and I think the Easter bunny may be sneaking these into the kids’ baskets, too!

These would be very sweet as spring teacher gifts, classmate gifts, and church projects. All the material can easily be found at any craft store and the seasonal pastel M&M’s — in any flavor — can be found at your local grocery store or retailer.
Easter Chicks
Mini cellophane bags
Googly craft eyes
Felt fabric
Yellow pom poms
Webbed feet cut out from orange flannel
Yellow feathers
Orange beaks cut …read more

This spring, M&M’s aren’t just for stuffing into an Easter basket!
I was recently sent a bunch of ideas from M&M’s full of crafty activities that you and your kids can have fun with as Easter approaches. Today’s idea is one that I want to try first, especially with Spring Break fast approaching and needing some ideas to take up some time!
Eggs in Nests
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 ounces fresh raspberries
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
30 wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
6 cups vegetable oil for frying
1 bag Dove Silky Smooth Dark Chocolate Promises
1 bag of coconut flakes …read more

Easter is still almost two months away (April 12th this year) and while out getting some necessities yesterday at the store I saw that they already have their displays out.
I know this isn’t out of the ordinary anymore, especially given the current economy and retailers wanting to get a jump on as much as they can as soon as they can, but it never fails to throw me for a loop how soon we’re faced with the next holiday season, no matter how far away it may be. The past few holidays have seemed to creep in sooner than …read more

Chocolate goes well with many holidays, and for good reason! But sometimes I wonder why it’s bigger for some holidays (Valentine’s and Easter) and not others (Fourth of July or Thanksgiving). Anyway, I dug up a little history to explain why chocolate and Easter go so well together:
“It was at about this time (early 1800’s) that the first chocolate Easter egg appeared in Germany and France and soon spread to the rest of Europe and beyond. The first chocolate eggs were solid soon followed by hollow eggs. Although making hollow eggs at that time was no mean feat, because the …read more