Easy Easter Food Ideas!

Are you ready for the Easter bunny once again?! I can't believe Easter has already come around & once again I've been thinking of some easy food ideas that would be perfect for entertaining friends & family. For Easter, I've included some that are perfect for Easter egg hunts, spring brunches, date nights and some fun family activities to entertain the children with in the school holidays!

Below are some of my favourite Easter themed treats, from platters to breakfasts, to DIY home kits to help fill your tables (and bellies!) with some delicious and pretty food ideas.

Easter Bunny Bread Rolls & Carrot Soup!

An ideal starter to your Easter lunch, a classic sweet, creamy roasted carrot soup paired with cute bunny bread rolls! For me fresh coriander is a marmite ingredient, love it or hate it (personally I hate it!) so instead I add a depth of flavour to my carrot soup by roasting the carrots first and adding turmeric and ground cumin/coriander. To serve with these I've attempted to make bunny bread rolls, using an easy dinner roll recipe before snipping in some ears and eyes. Although these did not come out perfectly as bunnies, they were still a cute addition to the table!

Egg Salad stuffed 'Carrots'

Ready made pastry is an absolute life-saver, especially for special occasions. Create these fun 'carrots' using a roll of croissant dough and fill them with a delicious egg salad, or a vegan, vegetarian or meaty salad instead! To make these I cut the croissant dough into strips and wrapped them around some tinfoil 'horns' or metal cream horn moulds if you have them. Brush with an egg wash, or even with natural orange food colouring for a very vibrant effect! Once filled with a creamy egg salad I topped with some dill to give the effect of carrot tops!

Cheeseboard 'Egg' platters!

One of my favourite platters for entertaining is always a cheeseboard, complete with some pickles, fruity items and fresh items. Perfect for nibbling on over drinks, or during an Easter Egg hunt party. To make it Easter themed, I love the idea of creating coloured layers to represent an Easter egg pattern.

The great thing with any charcuterie based board is that you can add whatever you like the most! I would recommend at least three types of cheeses, two cured meats, a fruit, a pickled item/olives, crackers/pretzels, and some smaller nuts/dried fruit for variety of flavours. There are lots of examples available on the Internet for colour blocked egg shaped cheeseboards that look really cute!

Carrot Cake - Pancakes, Waffles and Carrots!

Pancakes are one of my favourite treat breakfasts, and I really enjoy experimenting with flavours as well. Adapting them with fresh carrot and all the spices you'd find in a carrot cake make a wonderful Easter brunch dish. Top with maple syrup, peanut butter, chopped nuts or whatever else you fancy. I love the FitFoodieFinds healthy carrot cake pancake recipe and often make this dish, not just at Easter! It's easy to adapt the recipe to waffles as well, ideally served with  maple syrup and cream cheese drizzle for a real carrot cake flavour!

If you'd rather stick with a regular carrot cake, why not decorate them to look like carrots for a twist! I used a carrot cake tray bake recipe and then smothered in cream cheese frosting before cutting into triangular carrot shapes. Orange writing icing, or orange candy melts finely piped across them adds colour and a sprig of mint leaves in the top makes a great 'carrot top'!

Cinnamon Roll Easter Bunnies!

A fantastic, simple idea that’s perfect for breakfasts or an eleven o’clock snack are Cinnamon roll Easter Bunnies! Ready made cinnamon rolls are so versatile for all occasions and particularly fun with seasonal twists - see my Christmas tree versions here!

Open the packet per instructions and slice into 6 rounds (or the recommended slices per your tube brand). Then gently unroll about a third of the swirl, this will be a bit messy due to the cinnamon spread in them. Using the unrolled section create two loops on the top of the swirl to make bunny ears!

Cook per the instructions, keeping an eye on them for when they are golden brown. In the meantime make the icing in the packet. Once out the oven, allow to cool sightly and then drizzle the icing over the cinnamon bunnies and add some sprinkles as well. Or create a bunny tail using a thicker or coloured bowl of icing, or a bit of squirty cream would look great as well.

Easter Egg Cheesecakes

These were a real trend I saw last year and of course I had to give them a go! I used a Nestle small Easter egg as they are often pre-halved! I then used a normal chocolate cheesecake recipe for the filling on a digestive biscuit base. I decorated them with white chocolate and mini eggs. There are so many variations you could do with these to use your favourite flavours, e.g. switch up the biscuit base for gingernuts, biscoff or even oreos and use whatever decorations you like!

These do have to  be made the day before but are perfect for entertaining as they can be made in advance to wow your guests with on the day!

Mini Egg Cookies!

I don't think you can ever go wrong if you turn up at a party with homemade cookies! Chocolate chip NYC style cookies are a great option as they are slightly plump, making them a bit soft and chewy in the centre. Why not switch up your chocolate chips for the classic Easter confectionary treat - mini eggs! I'm a big mini egg addict (I can't resist!) and they work brilliantly as a cookie addition. If you prefer brownies you can also add mini eggs or even creme eggs into your favourite brownie recipes too!

Nest Meringues or Meringue 'fried' eggs!

These are super easy sweet treats for an Easter dessert or sharing table and look really cute! You can whip up your own meringue nests or to make these even easier, you can buy meringue nests in most supermarkets as well! For the nests, either whip some double cream or use squirty cream to fill and top with mini eggs and some chocolate shards. I like to break up a flake for this! The 'fried' eggs are instead filled with lemon curd and optionally can be sprinkled with poppy seeds/chia seeds to represent a bit of pepper!

DIY Doughnuts & Biscuits

Over lockdown I’ve enjoyed having DIY at home kits delivered from many restaurants and bakeries. Doughnuts are the perfect treat for any occasion and the Easter styled kits from Doughnut Time are a really fun activity! I love the Gingerbread edition I tried at Christmas! The kit contains the expertly made doughnuts, all the ingredients for icing and filling, equipment and decorations to have a friendly design competition. The Biscuiteers have also produced another ace DIY kit to perfect your icing skills on premade biscuits to decorate your Easter Tree. The kit contains the biscuits, icing and all the decorations you need alongside inspiration and tips to improve your piping skills!

There are so many baking kits available for some Easter fun. Remember to look in your local supermarket as they have some cost effective and simple options available, especially if baking with children. Britain Loves Baking have some wonderful DIY Easter bunny and Easter egg kits so you can make your own treats or kits for creme egg brownies. Marks and Spencer's have also added chocolate baking kits to their website this year which will help you whip up a feast of beautiful brownies & cakes!

Did you try any of these ideas?

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