Easter isn’t just about bunnies, gifts and egg hunts—it’s also about sharing delicious food with family and friends. Cooking a holiday meal or treats together as a family is a wonderful way to celebrate any holiday, especially Easter. And with so many easy-to-make Easter recipes, you’re sure to find something as delicious as it is fun.
Breakfast or brunch
Bunny Pancakes
A classic in our household is bunny pancakes – you can either use differently sized circles to achieve a cute bunny look or test your hand at pancake art and try to make pancakes in the shapes of a bunny face and ears (a plastic squirt bottle makes this much easier). Make regular round pancakes and use Easter cookie cutters to achieve the desired shapes when all else fails. You can also make bunny waffles or cinnamon rolls (use the store-bought kind in the can and twist the pieces into a bunny face and ears).
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Bunny-in-a-whole-eggs
You know classic toad-in-a-hole eggs (a fried egg in the middle of a piece of bread)? You can make bunny-in-a-hole eggs by using Easter cookie cutters to cut out the holes in the middle.
Hot cross buns
Another classic Easter food for breakie is hot cross buns. Most grocery stores and bakeries carry these around this time of year. You can also try your hand at making them from scratch—the recipe is pretty easy, and kids love playing with dough in the kitchen.
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Lunch
Lunch-box Easter snacks
I like to do something fun for my son’s school lunch the day before Easter break, and one of the easiest ways to Easter-ize their lunch is to pack a lot of snacks and store them in plastic eggs. You can put everything in them, from crackers and cookies to cut-up fruits and veggies, cheese, popcorn, gummies, and so much more.
‘Carrot’ crescent rolls
Buy those delicious (and super easy) crescent rolls in a can, shape them into hollow carrot shapes, bake them, and pipe them with any fillings, like cream cheese, pizza ingredients, tuna or salmon salad, ground meat, and more.
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Bunny sandwiches
Make egg salad sandwiches and cut them out with an egg, bunny, or chick-shaped cutter.
Cheesy-cracker carrots
Pile Goldfish crackers or cheese puffs into clear cone-shaped bags (they look like giant carrots). This is also a great idea when you’re going to a gathering with lots of kids.
Dinner
Easter-style charcuterie board
With all the day’s excitement, sometimes a well-stocked charcuterie board is the easiest way to get your kids to eat something other than jellybeans and chocolate. Here are a few ideas for some Easter style on your board:
- Use the round wax-covered cheeses, unpackaged, and decorate them to look like fat little chicks
- Fill small clay pots with hummus and add a few mini carrots; thickly slice orange peppers and top with chive cream cheese and garnish with a tiny sprig of dill (to look like the stem of a carrot)
- Make deviled eggs
- Cut out bunny-shaped melons and pineapples, or make rainbow skewers with rainbow-coloured fruit
- Slice pizza into triangles with green onions on top (to look like carrots).
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Kid-friendly ham dinner
Ham is a classic Easter dinner main course. Serve it with veggies and dip (make a bunny face on top of the dip out of veggie scraps); bacon maple carrots (have your child help you wrap slices of bacon or prosciutto around carrots and then roast them and drizzle with maple syrup); devilled egg pasta salad (kids can help chop and prep the veggies); and bunny buns (make a simple bread dough your little ones can knead, or go the simple route and buy the rolls in a can – kids will still love the pop! along with separating the balls of dough).
Desserts
Bird nests
There’s no shortage of fun, festive Easter desserts you and your children can make together. One of the cutest is little bird nests. Many variations exist, but the base recipe is melted marshmallows and Chow Mein noodles. You can add other things you like, such as chocolate or peanut butter. Once they’ve been made into little bowl-shaped nests and have set, add little chocolate eggs for a final touch.
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Peanut butter cup eggs
You can make peanut butter cup eggs to give to family and friends (and maybe enjoy yourselves). It’s as simple as making a yummy peanut butter and icing sugar filling, forming them into eggs, and then dipping them into melted chocolate. They then dry on parchment paper.
Bunny cake
Make a super sweet bunny cake with two round cakes. Prepare the batter for two 8- or 9-inch round cakes (or, for the love of Easter, buy a cake mix – they’re foolproof!), bake, and cool. Then, pop them out of the round pans. Take one cake and make two rounded cuts out of each side to get ears. If you turn it sideways, the middle leftover piece looks like a bow tie. It’s easy to shape and fun to decorate!
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Easter bark
Easter bark (or any type of bark for any occasion) is probably one of the simplest things to make and helps you use up any leftover candy and chocolate. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and melt chocolate (dark, milk, or white). Pour the melted chocolate into the prepared pan. Working quickly before it starts to dry, sprinkle pieces of candy, nuts, and chocolate and then let it all set. When it does, break it into randomly-shaped pieces and enjoy!
Chocolate-covered ‘carrots’
Finally, who doesn’t love chocolate-covered strawberries disguised as adorable carrots?! All you need are big fresh strawberries with stems and orange chocolate melts. Dip each strawberry into the melted chocolate, let the excess drip off, and place them on parchment paper to dry. When they do, pipe stripes of more melted orange chocolate across the berries to give them more texture.
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