Easter Treats

I can't believe it's almost Friday again and I have so much to show and tell you. As the Easter weekend starts tomorrow I must share with you our Easter tree and treats. A couple of Sundays ago I went down to the country park to look for a/some branches to use for our Easter tree. I knew the rangers had been cutting down a lot branches near the road so guessed I'd find what I was looking for - not so. Having seen all the branches piled up since before Christmas they had finally been taken away. However I also knew that D and the members of the sailing club had been able to trim a couple of trees back a little and so by walking alongside the lake I found what I was looking for. Once home I set about putting the branches in a pot filled with sand, you can see them here

Just perfect. I found some battery lights and wound them round then the next job was to unpack all the decorations that we had collected over the years and decide which were going on the tree. I had bought some little yellow eggs in Bruges specially so they were the first to go on, followed my homemade birds.

With the addition of more things a yellow and green theme started to emerge. My rabbits were stood carefully round the bottom

  and the tree was finally finished and I was 'well' pleased with it

Having still got some very favourite bits to put out, I decorated our fireplace without a fire. 

Here is the result and I rather like it.

Now in the Easter mood I turned my attentions to some real Easter treats in the form of cream egg brownies as asked for by J and his girlfriend F. As usual I went onto the internet to find a recipe as I had not even heard of these, but then I don't like cream eggs so wouldn't go searching for something to do with them. Anyway sure enough I found a recipe  for cream egg brownies (I used mini eggs) and added my own twist soft dark brown sugar, here they are before baking, some I split some eggs in half and some I left whole

and here they are after baking

They were gorgeous, and were nearly as good the next day - yes we were very restrained and only had one each. Don't worry I'm not going to leave you without the recipe, here it is - you will need a set of cup measures

4oz bittersweet chocolate - I used 80% coco chocolate

6oz butter

1/2 cup of sugar - I used soft dark brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup SR flour

Mini eggs - a £1 packet had 8 in and I found that I could stretch the mixture to make 8 brownies

Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over water, then cool

Whisk sugar and egg, then slowly add cooled chocolate mixture

Add flour and gently combine

Divide into bun/muffin cases

Put an egg in each

Bake for 13-15mins in 170oC oven

My first lot sank as they cooled, the second batch I made using caramel mini eggs and they didn't sink as much but my uncooked mixture seemed much firmer - they both tasted just as good. Do give them a go and let me know how you get on. 

Till next time Happy Easter. Love Anne x