Good Friday lands on 3 April this year, which makes Easter the first proper long weekend since January and the last one before the weather turns. Looking for Easter desserts in Christchurch that go past a foil-wrapped bunny from the supermarket? Here is what we have on.
The cake-filled Easter egg
A chocolate egg is hollow. A cake-filled egg is not, and that difference is the whole point. Our Easter range centres on handcrafted eggs made with tempered chocolate and filled properly, so cracking one open gets you somewhere. The shell breaks under your thumb with a dry snap and cake comes out.
Seasonal flavours change year to year and go on sale in the weeks before the weekend. Check the Easter page. Do not assume last year's line-up.
Make one yourself
If you would sooner learn how it is done, our Cake-Filled Easter Egg Class is a three-hour workshop capped at four people. You temper chocolate properly, mould an egg, then assemble and decorate a cake-filled egg to take home. All the chocolate, the pre-baked cake and the recipes are included. No baking experience assumed.
Tempering is the skill worth having. Done right, chocolate snaps clean and shines. Done wrong, it sets dull and streaky and smears grey on your fingers. Once you can feel the difference, a supermarket egg never looks the same again.
Go deeper into chocolate
For anyone who catches the bug, our chocolate workshop runs over two evenings and goes considerably further: polycarbonate moulds, ganache and truffle fillings, shelling and capping bonbons, and the decorative finishes that make them look shop-bought. You take home everything you make. The rest of our upcoming classes are listed on the site, with more detail on the classes page.
If chocolate is the whole point
Easter is mostly permission to eat chocolate for four days. The Thunder Cake, layered with Brazilian brigadeiro, is our most requested chocolate centrepiece; the brigadeiro sets fudgy between the sponge and drags at the fork. The Nutella Cake is the showier option. The Black & White Chocolate Mousse is built on a flourless brownie base for anyone at the table avoiding gluten, though our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease. Our handmade bon-bons travel well as a gift.
Something warm for a cooler weekend
Easter falls late enough in autumn that the evenings have turned. Our made-to-order dessert menu has a chocolate lava cake that splits and runs the moment you break the crust, and a chocolate fondue built for two sets of hands. Sit with somebody, keep dipping, let the pot go cold before you leave. A dark Belgian hot chocolate is the right way to end a cold walk.
Getting it in the house before Friday
Easter is one of our busiest weeks and whole cakes are made to order, so allow at least two days. Earlier, if you want a particular flavour. Order online and pick your collection date; the date picker only offers dates we can still make it. Collection only, from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street, and we do not deliver. Open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday as a rule, so Easter Sunday is not a collection day. Browse the full menu before you order.
