Oh so cute Oatcake and Cheese Easter Chicks

Biscuits and cheese with a seasonal twist. These chirpy Easter chicks are the perfect healthy snack to combat chocolate egg overload. Cute Easter eats that are fun for all the family - it's time to play with your food! 

I really can't call this a recipe. I guess at the most it counts as a serving suggestion. What it really is however is TOO CUTE. And at the moment we all need a bit of cuteness and fun in our lives. Whilst Easter is for many all about the chocolate, for those of us with a more savoury tooth recent years have seen the emergence of Cheester eggs. But which came first - the cheese chicken or the cheese egg?

Three Ingredient Cadbury Mini Creme Egg Fudge

With only two ingredients, no tricky temperatures or boiling hot sugar required, this microwave Easter Fudge is quick and easy to make. Once you’ve mastered it you can adapt the toppings to suit the occasion and personal preference. You can make it with white, milk or dark chocolate and use your favourite Easter treats as toppings whether that be mini or creme eggs. 

I've now made several seasonal variants of two ingredient chocolate fudge all of which have proved to be very popular. We had Last Rolo for Valentine's Day and Terry's Chocolate Orange & Zingy Orange Matchmaker and After Eight and Mint Matchmaker for Christmas. I wouldn't want Easter to feel left out so I've come up with both a white and a milk chocolate version. The White Chocolate Easter Fudge recipe was commissioned by Chapelton. This is Aberdeenshire's new town and whilsn't I don't live there I've already benefitted from its facilities, businesses an community. Whilst you're on the Chapelton website getting the fudge recipe be sure to check out the variety of properties available to suit all incomes and needs. The Creme Egg Fudge needs only three ingredients and along with it's recipe below I've shared other sweet easter treats that I've created over the years. I do hope that Lent hasn't been too painful and that the Easter Bunny will be good to you!

Easter Deviled Eggs - Rainbow hard boiled eggs

Post in collaboration with Juliettes Interiors

Unicorn eggs - the ideal dish for an Easter brunch. Celebrate the arrival of Spring with all the multicoloured shades of the rainbow in this pretty pastel retro-tastic canape which is perfect for parties or picnics. Take your devilled eggs to a whole new level of sophistication by colouring them and serving with smoked salmon and caviar. 

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a Chaise Longue? For me it's luxury, decadence, quaffing champagne, Art Deco and The Great Gatsby! It's a piece of furniture that I would absolutely love to own and I can totally imagine myself luxuriating on one wearing a silk dressing gown and being waited on hand and foot. Surely the height of glamour and sophistication? When I was invited to take part in a creative challenge and create a lunchtime menu inspired by my favourite Chaise Longue from the collection at Juliettes Interiors I didn't have to be asked twice. But which one to choose? I pondered over Neoclassical, Contemporary or Baroque, Leather, Velvet or Linen and Mahogany, Walnut or Gold Lacquer but in the end had to go with my initial gut instinct and the absolutely stunning Button Upholstered Italian Designer Turquoise Velvet Chaise Longue. Isn't she just gorgeous?

Tunnocks Teacake Easter Bunny Bums

Another of my quirky Scottish recipes using the iconic Tunnock's Teacake. The perfect no bake chocolate treat for Easter. A quick and easy assembly job using Tunnock's Teacake along with chocolate buttons and marshmallow tails to make oh so cute Easter Bunny Bums. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Easter! I feel I can finally say that now that Mother's Day has passed. I was going to update to my Easter logo last week but held on with the Bitten Heart for a little bit longer to celebrate International Women's Day and Mothering Sunday. I was rather spoiled by my favourite teenage humans with breakfast in bed, flowers, fizz and vouchers. Following this we headed for a walk in Dunnottar Woods with Pippa from BorrowMyDoggy and Ice Cream at Aunty Betty's. A late lunch at The Creel Inn was delicious whilst the day rounded off the the final episode of Call The Midwife and a Bubble Bath. Much love to all those who found the day difficult for whatever reason. 

Happy Easter Smoothies

Post in collaboration with Iceland Foods

Healthy Easter treats that taste as good as they look. Easter craft and food combine in these oh so cute, delicious and nutritious fruit and vegetable smoothies. Perfect for Easter breakfast or brunch and the ideal antidote to all those Chocolate Easter Eggs! Great fun to make for or with kids this Easter.

Chocolate, hot cross buns, chocolate, roast lamb, chocolate, simnel cake, chocolate... Easter is second perhaps only to Christmas as far as feasting dates go. Like so many holiday occasions it can be somewhat of an overindulgence when it comes to eating, drinking and being merry. All of a sudden chocolate becomes acceptable at pretty much any time of the day! As an antidote to all of the above today I'm sharing a fab selection of Fruit & Vegetable Smoothies. For the Easter Bank Holiday weekend my friends at Iceland foods asked me to come up with a recipe with the theme 'Easter Fun – Foods that aren’t what you think they are'. The only stipulation was that I had to include frozen fruit and vegetables and that my end product should be creatively presented to look like something else. I reckon that I've hit the nail firmly on the head with this one!

Discover more Easter treats on Foodie Quine

Tunnock's Teacake Easter Bunny Bums

Creme Egg Scottish Tablet

Easter Fridge Cakes

Syn Free Easter Eggs

Creme Egg Pancakes

The bank holiday weekend is set to be a proper scorcher so the #PowerOfFrozen will help you to keep cool, calm and collected. Frozen food can really take the strain off at seasonal get togethers and give you more time to spend with family and friends rather than slaving over a hot stove. Iceland have got everything instore that you'll need for Easter from roasting joints to trimmings and showstopping desserts to award winning hot cross buns. I always have a selection of their frozen fruit and vegetables to hand in my freezer. They are so convenient, avoid waste and are just perfect to help aim towards the new 10 a day guidelines. Freezing fruit and veg at the seasonal peak of perfection locks in the freshness until you're ready to use them, keeping them at their most appetising and nutritious. I love the convenience of Iceland's individual smoothie portion packs and we had great fun using them along with frozen rasps and baby carrots to come up with our Happy Easter Smoothies.

First you'll need to make your Chick, Lamb and Bunny drinking receptacles. I used mini glass milkbottles but you could use regular glasses or disposable plastic tumblers. You'll need to raid your craft box and/or buy a couple of cheap (should that be cheep?!) kids Easter craft packs at the supermarket or pound shop. I am SO not a craft blogger so if I can make these anyone can!

You will need...

• Glue (I used a hot glue gun)
• Googly Eyes and/or Sharpie Pens
• Feathers
• Pipe Cleaners
• Coloured Felt or Cardboard
• Cotton Wool Balls
• Straws to serve

Easter Lamb - cotton wool balls plus two threaded through straws, googly or drawn on eyes, felt/cardboard nose & mouth.

Easter Chick - googly or drawn on eyes, felt/cardboard comb and beak, feathers, cardboard feet.
Easter Bunny - googly or drawn on eyes, felt/cardboard nose, pipe cleaner whiskers and ears, cotton wool ball tail.

Easter Lamb - Banana, Kale, Mango and Honey Smoothie
...this green thickie is baa-rilliant

1 x 150g Sachet Iceland Banana, Kale and Mango Smoothie Mix

200ml Natural Skyr (or yoghurt)

100ml Milk

1 Tbsp Runny Honey

Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.

Pour into a Lamb and enjoy.

Easter Chick - Pineapple, Papaya and Carrot Smoothie 

...let me see you shake your tail feather

1 x 150g Sachet Iceland Pineapple, Papaya and Carrot Smoothie Mix

250ml Apple Juice

Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.

Pour into a Chick and enjoy.

Easter Bunny - Raspberry, Carrot, Orange and Maple Syrup Smoothie

...who loves Iceland's Baby Carrots as much as we do? The Easter Bunny!

100g Iceland Frozen Raspberries

50g Iceland Baby Carrots

300ml Orange Juice

1 Tbsp Maple Syrup

Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.

Pour into a Bunny and enjoy.

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Disclosure: This is a commissioned recipe for Iceland Foods. As always, all views expressed are my own. 

Thank you for supporting the brands who make it possible for me to continue to share my Edible Scottish Adventures with you. I’m super choosy and promise to bring you only the cream of the crop.

Salmon Filo en Croûte - only 5 ingredients!

Post in collaboration with Thermapen

A show stopping dish for Good Friday this Salmon filo en croûte is super quick and easy to make with only 5 ingredients. Ensure your Salmon is cooked to perfection this Easter with a Superfast Thermapen thermometer.

Can you believe it’s almost Easter? The year is just flying past and it really doesn't seem all that long ago that we were celebrating Christmas! This year I'm planning on Roast Beef for our Easter Sunday lunch. Whilst many of us will automatically think of serving Lamb - it’s somewhat intrinsically intertwined in our minds along with chicks, eggs, bunnies and chocolate - historically lambs are bred in the spring rather than eaten then. As such a newly born spring lamb may look cute but it won't be ready to roast until the Autumn so not quite as seasonal as you might think. If you fancy joining me with Easter Roast Beef do check out my recipe for Spring Roast of Scotch Beef with a Wild Garlic Pesto Crust.

Just like Christmas, in addition to the big day itself, there is the run up and the post script. Yup I'm talking about you Good Friday and Easter Monday. In the Catholic faith, Good Friday is a day of fasting. Because Christ sacrificed His flesh on Good Friday, Catholics abstain from eating flesh (meat) and instead eat fish. This religious practice has become an Easter tradition with many of us choosing fish as the 'dish of the day' on Good Friday. When it comes to fish I’m a complete sucker for salmon (25 ideas right here!) Combine it with pastry and you have instant success. In addition to only having five ingredients, my version of Salmon en croute is healthier than the traditional. Filo immediately cut calories in comparison to puff, you can substitute low cal spray oil for butter and when it comes to cream cheese use a light version. That way you can save all those calories for chocolate Easter eggs! 

Whatever you choose to eat this Easter make sure that it is cooked to perfection with the aid of the British made Superfast Thermapen thermometer. I really cannot recommend it enough (I even bought one for my Mum!) it’s one of my absolute kitchen essentials. I wouldn’t cook a steak without it and when the weather gets warmer it’s an absolute barbecue essential. It takes out all the guesswork when it comes to rare/medium/well done and avoids anxiety about BBQ food safety. It’s also great for jam making, sugar and chocolate work, deep fat frying and more. If you need an exact temperature to achieve a perfect result it will give you a reliable reading in just 3 seconds. My left handed BBQ geek teenage son absolutely loves it as it has an auto-rotating display that can be used in any position in either hand plus an intelligent backlit display which senses darkness self illuminates. The Thermapen ideal when it comes to en croûte and unless you have x-ray vision there's no way of telling if the salmon inside the pastry parcel is over or undercooked. When it comes to fish the magic number you are looking for is 60c.

5 Ingredient Salmon Filo en Croûte

4 Salmon Fillets, skin removed

240g Fresh Spinach

175g Soft Cream Cheese with Garlic & Herbs

4 sheets Filo Pastry

50g Butter, melted (or spray oil)

Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 190c

Cook the spinach in the microwave or a pan according to the packet instructions. Allow to cool, drain well and squeeze out any excess moisture really well before roughly chopping.

Put the cream cheese in a bowl add the spinach and season well with Salt & Pepper. Mix thoroughly.

Lay two slightly overlapping sheets of filo on a baking sheet and spray with oil or brush with melted butter. Lay another two sheets of pastry on top in the opposite direction to form a cross. Brush/spray with butter/oil.

Place the four salmon fillets adjacent to each other in the middle of the pastry cross.

Spread the spinach and cheese mixture on top of the salmon.

Fold in the pastry to form a parcel and scrunch it up on the top. Spay/brush again with oil/butter.

Bake for 15 minutes, then cover with tin foil to avoid the thin filo pastry burning. Return to the oven for a further 15 minutes or until the temperature reaches 60c on your Thermapen Superfast Thermometer.

If you want the perfect Lamb dish this Easter take a look at my 7 Hour Spiced Pulled Leg of Lamb and Bintu's Roast Harissa Lamb with Harissa Apricot Stuffing. Both cooked to perfection with Thermapen.

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Linking up to Bake of the Week & CookBlogShare

Disclosure: This is a commissioned recipe for Thermapen. As always, all views expressed are my own.

Thank you for supporting the brands who make it possible for me to continue to share my Edible Scottish Adventures with you. I’m super choosy and promise to only bring you the cream of the crop.

Potato Rosti and Quail Egg Easter Nests

Syn Free Easter Eggs! A seasonal savoury treat which is perfect for breakfast, brunch or brinner. These bitesized Potato Rosti and Quail Egg Easter Nests taste amazing and are Syn Free on Slimming World.

This recipe is the perfect antidote to all the chocolate overindulgence that Easter can bring. Whilst I'll happily demolish a chocolate krispie Easter nest filled with Mini Eggs, savoury is truly where my heart lies. #CheeseNotChoc I'm sincerely hoping that the Easter Bunny has procured a Cheester Egg for me as they have all sold out. With that in mind it's just struck me that you could even grate some cheese over the top of the Rosti Nests before they head to the oven. They'd make the perfect Easter breakfast or brunch but if truth be told I'd be delighted to eat them for pretty much any meal on any day of the year. (If you happen to be doing Slimming World, use Fry Light and they are syn free - can't be many Easter Eggs you can say that about!)

My Potato Rosti & Quail Egg Easter Nests are super easy to make if you follow my recipe. They did however entail a wee bit of trial and error on my part to perfect the method before I shared them with you.

• Muffin Tin - I baked the first batch in a silicone muffin tin but traditional metal ones are definitely better for heat conductivity and avoidance of soggy bottoms.
• Potatoes - Next the potatoes, I left the skins on, used a waxy variety and grated them using a food processor on the coarsest setting. They need to have as much as possible of the moisture squished out of them. I used a combination of my hands and squeezing them in a tea towel.
• Seasoning - Use much more salt and pepper than you think you'll need. My first batch was rather bland. You could also spice them up with paprika or chilli.
• Quail Eggs - Final hurdle was the quail eggs. I quickly learned that you can't crack a quails egg open like you would a hen's egg. I tried a number of methods that Google suggested finally settling on sawing them open with a serrated knife. The technique takes a wee while to master but by the second dozen I had no burst yolks which I count as a success (there were 3 casualties in the first batch)
• Eggs - You can use hen's eggs for this recipe. Just make sure they are small ones and make a nice big hollow in the potato nest so they fit.

Potato Rosti & Quail Egg Easter Nests

Makes 12

500g Waxy Potatoes

Salt & Pepper

12 Quail Eggs

Spray Oil

Preheat the oven to 200c

Wash the potatoes, no need to peel, and coarsely grate.

Squeeze as much moisture as you possibly can out of the potatoes using your hands, a teatowel or combination of both.

Season the grated potatoes really well with salt and pepper.

Spray a 12 hole metal muffin tin with oil and arrange the potatoes into 'nests' with a small hollow in the middle.

Crack a quail egg into each hollow.

Spray the nests with oil before baking them in the oven for 20 minutes or until the eggs are set and the potato rosti is golden brown and crispy.

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Cadbury Creme Egg Scottish Tablet

When the phenomenon of creme egg recipes combines with my own passion for Scottish recipes you get a seriously sweet Easter treat. Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs are combined with traditional Scottish Tablet for a confection that is seriously naughty but nice.

Easter. Time for chicks, eggs, lambs, flowers, bunnies, chocolate and CREME EGG BAKES! They seem to have become a real 'thing' in recent years and I've watched my fellow food bloggers create some absolute masterpieces incorporating them. Last year I jumped on the bandwagon for the first time with my Creme Egg Pancakes. This year I'm taking the sweetness even further with Creme Egg Scottish Tablet. Tablet conjures up many childhood memories for me. My Grandma Corntown was a prolific maker of it for sales of work but hers came with an unexpected added ingredient. The unmistakable stench of cigarette smoke (Embassy No. 1 as I recall). Tablet is a particular Scottish Confectionery, not to be confused with fudge or toffee (although sometimes it's know as Swiss Milk Toffee) It has a crumbly medium hard slightly grainy texture and should be consumed strictly in moderation. 

You do need to be a serious sugar junkie to enjoy Tablet. Even moreso this Easter version. It's a fund raising staple of School Fairs and Cake and Candy Stalls up and down Scotland where it's sold wrapped in greaseproof paper. Unless you are an expert maker of tablet I'd recommend that you use a thermometer to gauge the exact temperature required. My first batch went a wee bit over and was already setting as I poured it out of the pan. The recipe below is based on one from an old Young Farmers cookbook which I've converted to metric, swapped out margarine for butter and vanilla essence for extract. To ensure perfect tablet here are my top tips... 

Top Tablet Tips 

• Use a deep heavy based pan - the mixture doubles in volume when boiling 
• Ensure the sugar is FULLY dissolved before you bring the mixture up to the boil 
• Stir CONSTANTLY with a wooden spoon throughout the whole process 
• Don't boil too severely - a light rolling boil is better than a fierce one 
• Temperature to aim for is 116c - soft ball stage 
• Don't leave it too long before scoring the tablet otherwise it will be difficult to cut 
• Cut into SMALL pieces - it's super sweet! 

Creme Egg Scottish Tablet 

250ml Milk 

110g Salted Butter (plus extra to grease) 

2 tsp Vanilla Extract 

900g Granulated Sugar 

397g Tin Sweetened Condensed Milk 

2 x 89g Packs of Cadbury Mini Creme Eggs 

Grease a Swiss Roll Tin with the extra Butter. 

Cut one pack of the Mini Creme Eggs into halves and the second pack into quarters. 

Put the Milk and Butter into a large heavy based saucepan (mixture will double in quantity as it heats) and warm through until the butter has melted. 

Add the vanilla extract and granulated sugar and heat until the sugar is FULLY DISSOLVED. 

Turn up the heat and Boil for 10 minutes (rolling boil) stirring CONSTANTLY with a wooden spoon. 

Add the condensed milk, bring back up to the boil continuing to stir CONSTANTLY for approximately 10 minutes or until the temperature reaches 116c (soft ball stage) 

Beat for 2-3 minutes with a wooden spoon and pour into the buttered tin. 

Work quickly to carefully place the pieces of creme egg into the tablet. 

Leave to set, scoring squares after about 5 minutes. 

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7 Hour Spiced Pulled Leg of Lamb

Easter. The time of Chocolate, Bunnies, Chocolate, Hot Cross Buns, Chocolate, Chicks, Chocolate, Eggs, Chocolate and Lambs. More about the chocolate to come on the blog very soon but for today I'm concentrating on the Lamb. The Roast Lamb that many of us eat on Easter Sunday goes back earlier than Easter to the first Passover of the Jewish people. A sacrificial lamb was roasted and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The lamb’s blood was painted on doorposts in the hope that God would “Pass Over” the marked homes and bring no harm. Accustomed to eating lamb for Passover when Jews converted to Christianity they continued the custom at Easter. Christians refer to Jesus as the “Lamb of God” and the traditions merged. Even without taking religion into consideration Lamb is a symbol of rebirth and the new spring and historically would have been one of the first fresh meats available after a long winter.

The recipe I'm sharing today uses a whole leg of lamb which is slow cooked for 7 hours with a fragrant spiced marinade. I've served it in an informal style with pita bread, salads and dips but it would work equally well as a more traditional Easter Sunday lunch with roast potatoes, vegetables and all the trimmings. The low and slow method of cooking for 7 hours at only 100c might give concern that the meat hasn't reached sufficient temperature to be fully cooked. Lamb requires to reach an internal temperate of 71c and to check on this I used my trusty Superfast Thermapen 4 kitchen thermometer. You can read my full review of this kitchen essential on this previous blog post along with my recipe for Spiced Apple and Rosehip Jelly. Suffice to say my Thermapen is one of my most well used pieces of kitchen kit taking only 3 seconds to give an accurate reading. It provides me with peace of mind that my steak is rare, my fudge will set, my jam won't run off my toast, my chocolate is tempered and my BBQ'd burgers won't give anyone an upset tummy. I seriously wonder how I ever managed to cook without one. Following the recipe I'm offering you the chance to win your own Thermapen in conjunction with Electronic Temperature Instruments.

7 Hour Spiced Pulled Leg of Lamb

1 Leg of British Lamb aprox 2.5kg

Marinade

1 large bunch of fresh Mint

2 sprigs Rosemary

6 cloves of Garlic

50ml Olive Oil

1 tsp Smoked Paprika

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Coriander

1 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

Juice and rind of 1 Lemon

2 Onions peeled and quartered

500ml Lamb Stock

2 Tbsp Cornflour

Combine all the marinade ingredients in a food processor and blend to a thick paste. Rub the marinade all over the leg of lamb. At this point you can leave the lamb in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight to allow the flavours to permeate. Alternatively if time is short it can go straight into the oven.

Preheat your oven to 100c 

Place the lamb in a roasting tin, add the stock, nestle the quartered onions around the joint and and cover with a double layer of foil.

Cook for 7 hours.

After 6 hours 30 minutes use a Thermapen to check that the internal temperature has reached 71c. Remove the foil and turn the oven temperature up to 180c for the last 30 minutes to allow the lamb to brown. 

Take the leg of lamb out of the oven and spoon the juices and onions into a small saucepan to make your gravy. Blitz until smooth with a hand blender and boil vigorously to reduce the volume. Thicken with the cornflower slaked with water and season.

Shred the lamb using two forks. If the lamb is tricky to pull you may find it easier to carve thick slices and pull them rather than battle with the whole joint.

Serving Suggestion - I served my 7 Hour Spiced Pulled Leg of Lamb with Pitta Bread, Coleslaw, Olives, Hummus and Raita.

Electronic Temperature Instruments have provided a Yellow Thermapen 4 Superfast Kitchen Thermometer as a giveaway for readers of Foodie Quine. Prize value is £60. Entry is via the Rafflecopter widget below. To enter, let me know in a comment "What will you be cooking for Easter Sunday Lunch?" For additional bonus entries you can follow me on Twitter, Tweet about the Giveaway, follow me on Instagram or like me on Facebook.

Giveaway ends 29th March 2016 12:00am. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Further Easter Lamb recipe inspiration 

• Slow Cooked Shetland Lamb Casserole with Creamy Herbed Polenta
• Tandoori Leg of Lamb
• Slow Cooked Pulled Lamb with White Wine & Root Vegetables
• Ras El Hanout Spiced Shoulder of Lamb
• Slow Cooker Lamb with Cumin, Garlic, Lemon & Lime
• Roast Lamb Shoulder
• Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks with Red Wine and Butter Beans

Disclosure : This is a commissioned recipe for Electronic Temperature Instruments . All views expressed are my own.

Cadbury Creme Egg Pancakes

You are either going to love these or hate these. Social media reaction to them ranged from "Far too sweet for me", "Yuk, no, just no!!!", "Why would you even do that!!!" to "OMG!!! Touched by Genius", "So weird, so good!", "I need these in my life" and one of my favourites, "I'd be scared to try these incase I really liked them". Cream Egg Bakes seem to have become a 'thing' in recent years and I've watched my fellow food bloggers create some real masterpieces incorporating them. Time for me to jump on the bandwagon. I actually wrote off my first attempt at Creme Egg Pancakes as a complete failure and lost cause as I thought they looked rather ugly. Social media said otherwise (most likes ever on on of my instagram photos) so I've tweaked the method a bit, made a second batch and here they are in all their glory.

When I shared them on Facebook I used the phrase "When Pancake Day and Easter collide you get Creme Egg Pancakes!" I'd just like to clarify that of course I meant metaphorically speaking. Those who berated the wording as being daft, ignorant and stupid can now get down off their soapboxes. I do know that they can never actually collide and the the 40 day period in between is indeed known as Lent. And before anyone comments that the recipe says to cook on a girdle as opposed to a griddle, in Scotland that really is the correct word. You can use a frying pan, griddle or girdle. Now I'll get down off my soapbox ;-)

GIRDLE, n. A met. form of Eng. griddle, a circular iron plate with hooped handle, suspended or placed over the fire and used for baking scones, oat-cakes, etc.

Cadbury Creme Egg Pancakes

3 Cadbury Creme Eggs

125g Self Raising Flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

2 Tbsp Caster Sugar

1 Free Range Egg - beaten

aprox 100ml Milk

Oil or Butter to grease

Freeze the Creme Eggs for an hour then use a serrated knife to cut them into thin slices. (The ends of the eggs are the chef's perk!)

Places the slices on a sheet of greaseproof paper and return to the freezer whilst you make the pancake batter. 

Sieve together the dry ingredients and make a well. Add beaten egg and mix. Gradually add milk whisking well until you reach a dropping consistency. You may need slightly more or less depending on your flour and the size of your egg.

Preheat a girdle or frying pan on the hob and grease with butter or oil.

Spoon on the batter to the desired size and place a creme egg slice on top. 

Once the pancake starts to bubble turn over with a palette knife to cook the other side. 

Don't eat straight off the girdle as the creme egg will be like molten lava. Seriously HOT! 

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Easter Fridge Cakes - White Chocolate Bark and Malt Easter Tray Bake

Looking for leftover Easter egg recipes? You've come to the right place! Use up those leftover mini eggs and chocolate to make my Easter Fridge Cakes. No bake recipes for Easter treats that are quick, easy and fun to make and can be easily adapted. White chocolate bark with marshmallows, mini eggs and sprinkles and a Malt Easter (Malteaser) tray bake. Rocky road, tiffin, bark or fridge cake - they're all no bake cakes.

The Easter bunny has been and the house is full of chocolate. Sound familiar? Believe it or not sometimes there can actually be such a thing as too much chocolate. Easter Eggs, bars and buttons can all be melted down and used in baking if you and your kids have been flooded with treats and simply can't face unwrapping and devouring another egg in its current form. According to Love Food Hate Waste, 30,000 tonnes of chocolate and sweets are thrown away in the UK every single year. Don't let your eggs become part of that statistic! With the kids now on their Easter holidays either of these no bake cakes would be ideal for them to help make when the "I'm bored" whining starts. The recipes are so good they're worth worth buying more Chocolate for if you've eaten it all!

MALT-EASTER TRAY BAKE

100g Margarine

3 Tbsp Golden Syrup

200g Digestive Biscuits

120g Maltesers (1 box)

200g Mini or Micro Eggs

300g Milk Chocolate

Melt the margarine and syrup in a saucepan and remove from the heat. 

Put the digestives, maltesers and 100g of the mini eggs in a sealed bag and bash with a rolling pin. (If you are using Micro Eggs keep them whole)

Mix the bashed ingredients into the melted ones. 

Spoon into a greased/lined 34cm x 20 cm tray bake tin and flatten. 

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or over a bain marie and pour over the top of the biscuit mix. 

Bash the remaining 100g of Mini/Micro Eggs and sprinkle on top of the chocolate. 

Refrigerate until set then cut into chunks. 

WHITE CHOCOLATE EASTER BARK

300g White Chocolate

200g Mini or Micro Eggs

170g Mini Marshmallows

Hundreds & Thousands

Melt chocolate in the microwave or over a bain marie, allow to cool slightly before you mix through marshmallows and bashed mini, or whole micro eggs. 

Spread in a greased/lined 34cm x 20 cm traybake tin. 

Sprinkle with hundreds & thousands. 

Refrigerate until set. 

Cut into slices as large as your mouth allows 

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Hot Cross Bun French Toast

Can you believe that Easter is just around the corner? I really don't know where the first quarter of 2015 has gone to. Time is just whizzing past. My 10 year old daughter has given up both sweets and chocolate for Lent. Day one was hard when I told her that yes, Nutella did indeed count as chocolate. That came as a bit of a shock to her. She's done really well bar a wee inadvertent slip up with a crunch corner yoghurt and a cube of fudge in a restaurant which was in her mouth before her brain had time to engage! A parcel of Easter treats in the post from Marks & Spencer didn't go down too well with her but the jelly carrots and chocolate bunny have been stashed away for her to enjoy at a later date. Her attempt at the carrots being one of her 5 a day didn't wash with me. I particularly loved the M&S Easter Biscuits which are delicious and very moreish - butter, spices, cranberries and currants. Like a hot cross bun in cookie form.

Easter Eggs don't necessarily have to be of the chocolate variety. Regular readers will know how much I love cute and quirky foodie creations. How about this one of mine for a novelty breakfast? An Easter Bunny Egg created from a fried free range egg, black olive eyes, string cheese whiskers and streaky bacon ears.

I did give fair warning that my Tunnock's Teacake Sheep who last made an outing to celebrate Chinese New Year would be brought out to pasture again as Easter Lambs. Instructions how to make these can be found here. It's always lovely to hear when someone makes something after seeing it on the blog, I was chuffed to be sent photos of a whole herd made to celebrate the year of the sheep. Do tweet/facebook me if you try your hand at Easter lambs.

I've always known of the existence of Simnel Cake and its significance in relation to Easter but am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I have never actually tried it. Thanks Marks and Spencer for coming to my rescue. A gorgeous light fruit cake with a layer of marzipan inside and toasted marzipan on the top. The 11 marzipan balls represent Jesus disciples minus Judas. Their biscuit bunnies are pretty tasty too!

There are plenty of non traditional hot cross bun flavours on the shelves this year. These are another thing that I feel I really should try my hand at baking at some point. Ah well, there's always next year. For now I tried three M&S varieties. Berries & Cherries, Toffee Fudge & Belgian Chocolate and Bramley Apple. I'm clearly a traditionalist as the toffee and chocolate weren't for me. The fruity ones were the best and it was those that I used to make a breakfast/brunch dish of Hot Cross French Toast.

HOT CROSS BUN FRENCH TOAST

Serves 4

4 Hot Cross Buns

3 Free Range Eggs

Oil for frying

Bacon & Maple Syrup to serve

Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork.

Split the Hot Cross Buns in half and soak them in the egg mixture until fully absorbed.

Heat a frying/griddle pan and add a splash of oil.

Fry the eggy hot cross buns for a couple of minutes on each side until nicely browned.

Serve with crispy bacon and lashings of maple syrup.

Who can resist a dippy egg? Not me that's for sure, especially when served up in these oh so cute bunny eggcups. There was a whole lot of love for these on my social media channels. The wooden spoon comes courtesy of Scotland's Rugby team...

After my success with stamped biscuits for The Great Comic Relief Bake Off, I was keen try try out the set of three Easter cookie cutters. When it came to it I didn't get a look in as foodie boy baked up a storm with them using a Gingerbread Man recipe. They spread a wee bit when baking so the eggs were slightly wonky in shape but the bunny, flower and butterfly imprints came out successfully. The perfect homemade foodie treat for a Hoppy Easter and a Springy Spring! 

Disclaimer : M&S provided me with a selection of Easter products for the purpose of this post.. All views expressed are my own. This is not a paid post.