Last updated on October 23rd, 2017
It’s the usual mayhem and madness. School breaks up in an hour, and Mrs Bunny has yet to procure a single Easter egg. With a household diet of vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, “I’m on a diet” or “I don’t give a crap as long as it’s chocolate and doesn’t have Marmite in it,” I’m in a flap.
Growing up in Paris, there was nothing quite as enticing as the intoxicating aroma of a Parisian chocolate shop at Easter. We would get one magical masterpiece of an Easter egg each. One. This might be the traditional chocolate fish, or a chicken wearing a fancy bonnet. The one that I treasured beyond all others was a Casimir, the dinosaur of French children’s telly. His crunchy belly was filled with sugary pastel-coloured mini-eggs, full of sweet alcohol.
I started spending my Easters in England on a farm near Loughborough from the age of nine. To my delight, I discovered the Easter egg tradition there involved oodles of confectionary heaven, mostly from a company then unheard of outside Great Britain called Cadbury. Flopsy, over in England, seemed to like me much more than Monsieur Lapin in Paris. He would leave all kinds of loot scattered around the country garden, some even expertly buried in the Ha-Ha (more about Ha-Has another day!).
Cadbury is still very much at the heart and soul of a Londoner’s Easter egg hunt. A Cadbury chocolate creme egg being a family favourite, but we now a have a delectable choice of chocolate confectioners in London. So, I head out with a spring in my step in search of something yummy and Londony.
Thankfully, Selfridges comes to my rescue. They have an egg-straordinary assortment of everything Mrs Bunny needs, from personalised Nutella Jars and Lindt Easter bunnies, to Lola’s carrot top cupcakes, Artisan du Chocolat vegan honeycomb and even a limited edition Tom Dixon designed chocolate collection.
I’m now chocolate weary, so I head up to Harry Gordon’s Bar in Selfridges for a refreshing gin-infused Sloe Down cocktail. I can’t resist taking a nibble of just one Easter egg, and I opt for the Marmite one. Love it or ‘ate it, Happy Easter, London!
