9 Strange and Different Easter Treats

Eggs go on sale the week before Easter, so you may as well stock up and do something with those little protein-packed symbols of spring. Not all of these recipes contain eggs, but they are all creative new ideas for spicing up your Easter feast, party, or holiday snacking.

1. RAINBOW EASTER EGGS

If you have egg-shaped food molds, or can fashion your own out of plastic eggs, you can impress your Easter guests with Rainbow Striped Jello Easter Eggs. The Jell-o must be firmer than the regular recipe, and to get the stripes, you’ll need to plan ahead, because each color needs to firm up before you add the next. But the finished product looks amazing when you present them at dessert time.

2. SAFFRON MERINGUE CHICKS

Photograph by Flickr user Lenore Edman.

Yes, you can make Peeps at home. Homemade marshmallow Peeps are possible, but Lenore at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories made them for gourmet tastes, out of saffron-flavored meringue. The fluffy meringue is made from egg whites (so traditional for Easter), sugar, and the saffron provides the perfect Peeps color. Other people tried them with different flavors, shapes, and colors.

3. DEVILED EGG BUNNY FEET

Among promotions for several contests, Hungry Happenings has a recipe for these Deviled Egg Bunny Feet. Actually two recipes, so you can decide how spicy you want your egg yolks. Then the yolk mixture is colored with pink food dye. Just fill the egg whites and pipe the “toes” on.

4. PEEPSHI

A skilled sushi artist can make sushi look like anything they want to, and a really skilled food artist can take other foods and make them look like sushi. This is "Peepshi," made with marshmallow peeps. And it does contain rice -in the form of Rice Krispies marshmallow treats! The instructions for making them are at Serious Eats.

5. CHOCOLATE ZOMBIE BUNNIES

Miss Demeanor at Criminal Crafts made gory yet edible art out of store-bought chocolate bunnies. With a little imagination and homemade colored icing as paint, you, too, can create a bloody tableau of zombie bunnies feasting on the brains of their enemies on a base of crushed Oreo soil. She even saved money by buying some chocolate rabbits that were already broken.

6. EASTER DOLL BREAD

These cute Croatian bread dolls are a combination of braided challah bread with the addition of an Easter egg face. They are made small, so each guest at the dinner table can have their own loaf. The recipe is here, translated from the original Spanish, which may be more accurate.

7. CHEESECAKE-FILLED CHOCOLATE EASTER EGGS WITH PASSION FRUIT YOLK

Photograph by Flickr user raspberri cupcakes. 

You can make your own Cadbury eggs, or you can make chocolate Easter eggs that look like candy but taste like something even better -cheesecake! Steph at Raspberri Cupcakes shows us how to make Cheesecake-Filled Chocolate Easter Eggs for a high-class dessert. The cheesecake is the white of the egg, chocolate makes up the shell, and the “yolk” is a spoonful of sauce made from passionfruit pulp, apricot jam, and butter. Not as overwhelmingly sweet as candy eggs, but rich and creamy and decadent.

8. MOSAIC EASTER EGGS

Chinese Tea Eggs are made by boiling eggs, rolling them to crack the shell, and then soaking them in tea. When the shells are removed, it leaves a lovely mosaic pattern. Jayne at The Barefoot Kitchen Witch substituted food dye for the tea, in lots of different colors, and came up with Edible Easter Eggs. She used gel food coloring, and recommends leaving them in the refrigerator to soak overnight.

9. EDIBLE BIRDS NESTS

Once you’ve got eggs and birds, you need a birds nest -one you can eat! Amy Karol at Angry Chicken made birds nests from shredded wheat squares and melted chocolate chips. That’s all. Get the instructions here.

Just remember, you will have failures when you try a brand-new art recipe, so you might want to have a dry run before Easter. Even if you only make one batch, you can always eat your own rejects!