These little plastic moulds have been invaluable over the years in saving money on Easter eggs and also in making sure that Master Shoestring can have a chocolate egg just like everyone else. There are vegan eggs with no soya which you can buy in the shops now. But years ago this was not the case and Master Shoestring often longed for a real chocolate egg. Up until he was 5 years old I was unable to find a chocolate he could eat so we used a metal tin egg and filled it with sweets.
When Master Shoestring was at Kindergarten one of the Mums there pointed out that Lindt dark chocolate did not contain anything which was unsuitable for him and so he had his first taste of chocolate ! A special moment ! I realised that I could melt this chocolate and form it into large eggs and small ones so I bought the moulds you see above and some which you can use to make small eggs.
You do have to melt the chocolate carefully and then apply it all over the mould using a pastry brush. Then you leave it to set in the fridge and repeat the process about 4 times to make sure that you get a thick enough shell. When it is time to turn out the 1/2 egg you have made do this very carefully on a flat surface and loosen the shell by pulling at the corners of the mould. The other thing we have found helps with release is to polish the mould really well with a dry cloth before you start applying the chocolate.
We ice names on the homemade eggs and tie them together with ribbon, Then they are propped up on special Easter mugs that have been sourced cheaply at pound stores or jumble sales.
Little eggs are easier as you just fill the mould up with chocolate. This year I also have rabbit moulds to try out. I hope that these will turn out just as well. The only disadvantage we have found over the years is that dark chocolate is quite high in caffeine so we have to ration how much Master Shoestring eats as otherwise he does find going to sleep on the evening of Easter Sunday quite hard !
Making eggs yourself definitely saves money if you look at how much you are paying per 100g of chocolate and it also saves on packaging waste !
What do you do about eggs for Easter ?
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