13 Chocolate Egg Hacks For Easter

Did you know that, according to Forbes, around 90 million chocolate Easter eggs are sold in the U.S. every year? That's a lot of chocolate! There's no doubt that Easter is a time for sweet tooths, so what better way to celebrate Easter then than with some chocolate egg hacks? That way, you can make something wonderfully chocolatey to eat or to treat someone else, while getting creative in the kitchen with friends or family. 

So, where and when did the tradition of these sweet eggs start? It all began in Europe in the 19th century, primarily in France and Germany, per Chocolate Trading Co. In England, Cadbury began making chocolate in the 1840s, but it was over 30 years before the world-renowned Cadbury easter eggs appeared. Cadbury was also responsible for introducing pure cocoa into what would become the Easter egg-making process by 1866. Earlier, Dutch inventor Coenraad Van Houten came up with a way to separate cocoa butter from the bean in 1828.

With decorated eggs being an important symbol of Easter since pagan times, it's little surprise that the chocolate industry has added to the history of the much-loved chocolate egg popular today. Now, you can add to that legacy with the same love of chocolate and inventiveness through these innovative chocolate Easter egg hacks.

There's an art to tempering chocolate, which is the method used to make chocolate glossy and to give it a texture that snaps when it's broken. Tempering also makes each mouthful smooth and creamy, keeps the chocolate from melting easily, and is also easy to mold. So, tempered chocolate is a must for good Easter eggs. To temper chocolate, you're essentially heating up and cooling it down, which is often achieved using a water bath in a bain-marie or a similar vessel (via Read Cacao).

Australian chocolatier Kirsten Tibbals demonstrates a simple, effective, and fast chocolate tempering hack using a microwave. To use her method, put chocolate buttons or chopped chocolate pieces from a block into a plastic bowl and melt in the microwave for 30-second intervals on high, stirring in-between. When the mixture is about half liquid and half solid, heat it for 15 seconds more or use a hairdryer to gently heat the mixture. Dip a small piece of baking paper into the chocolate, shake off any excess, and leave to dry for about seven minutes if it's milk chocolate and up to nine minutes for white chocolate. Meanwhile, keep the rest of the mixture liquid by heating it with a hairdryer. Once it sets, this means that the chocolate is tempered and ready to use.

Okay, you've bought a delicious chocolate Easter egg, but there's a bit of an issue. Either you don't think the surprise in the middle is that impressive, or you just want to change it up. There's only one snag: the egg is sealed and you can't get to the center unless you crack it. And if you do manage to open up the egg, how are you going to get it back together? Thankfully, there's a hack for that. Now, you can merrily customize your chocolate Easter egg and elevate it with a cool new surprise inside. 

Cookist demonstrates how to get inside the egg by first running a sharp knife along the join that brings the two halves of the chocolate together. You should then be able to gently pull apart the egg. Next, add whatever surprise you want to one half of the egg. Then, slightly melt the edges of the other half in a heated pan. Put the egg back together and let it rest for a minute on a raised base, supported lengthways. Finish by covering the egg in colorful wrapping paper.

While it's difficult to imagine leftover Easter eggs, if you're somehow left with a few, you can turn them into delicious, crowd-pleasing brownies. To make the Huffington Post recipe you need 150 grams of leftover Easter eggs and 90 grams of mini eggs, along with butter, dark and light muscovado sugar, four eggs, cream cheese, and flour. You'll also need small amounts of vanilla extract and cornflour.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie or double boiler. Beat the dark sugar, an egg, cornflour, and vanilla extract in another bowl, then add the cream cheese. In a different bowl, beat the remaining eggs and add the melted chocolate, with light muscovado sugar and flour. Put half the first chocolate mix into the greased and lined tin, adding in portions of the second mixture by dropping it in with a spoon. Add the remainder of the first chocolate mixture, then drag a skewer through it all to create a rippled texture before baking. Part way through, you'll add the mini eggs and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Once cool, the recipe will serve up a total of 16 brownies. 

Have you ever seen a gorgeous carved chocolate egg that looks as if it's been beautifully carved by a true craftsman? It certainly beats a plain-looking one, right? However, it turns out that you can create a bas-relief look on your own chocolate egg without using any knives or specialized tools at all. Cupcake Savvy's Kitchen features a cool carved Easter egg design that you can achieve by making a gelatin mold.

To make the carved insert, you'll dissolve packets of gelatin with boiling water. Pour the liquid into a silicone mold. Put this in the refrigerator overnight to set. You can potentially use the plastic casing around a chocolate egg as a mold. 

When the mold is ready, you will place the jelly insert into one of the plastic egg molds, with the design facing upward, pressing down so it's flush against the surface. Paint melted chocolate on the top, covering the whole mold, refrigerating for 30 minutes after the first coat. Apply a second and put in the chiller for another half hour. Repeat with the other half. Pop the egg halves out of the molds and you'll reveal a beautiful carved design! Melt the edges of the eggs and stick the halves together. You can further highlight the stunning carving by painting your egg with edible gold dust.

Creativity is all about imagination and what's more imaginative than hollow chocolate eggs that look like yarn? With this eye-catching hack by She Knows, the only tools you need are some balloons, straws or wooden skewers, and some clothespins! You'll need a cup of chocolate candy melts per egg too, and pastel colors can look pretty. 

Blow up your balloons to standard egg size or just a bit bigger. You can add a few candies inside at this point, too. Then, tie up the end of the balloon. Melt your chocolate and put this in a piping bag or food bag with the tip cut off. Holding the balloon, pipe the chocolate over the surface, moving the bag in different directions. Remember to briefly turn the balloon upside down during this process to get full coverage. 

Next, get a glass container that's big enough for the balloon to sit inside without touching the sides. Put a straw or skewer across the top of the glass and use a clothespin to clip the tied end of the balloon so that it hangs down. Allow the chocolate to dry before letting the air out of the balloon and gently removing it from the egg. You'll need a little more patience to do this if you have candies inside, too.

A geode is a rock that, when split open, displays a wonderful and unique array of sparkling crystals. These sparklers also take a long time to form, on the order of thousands of years (via Wonderopolis). Imagine, then, how spectacular it would be to make a colorful geode egg for Easter in far less time than the real thing. If you follow a glittering hack from Tastemade, then you can really add some sparkle to Easter and have some fun (and maybe even learn some cool geology facts) along the way.

To make this Easter egg hack, first freeze a mix of 8 ounces of melted white chocolate, ¾ cup hot whipping cream, and a pinch of salt for an hour to make a ganache. Next, melt chocolate or candy melts to cover an egg mold and freeze to set. Whisk the ganache so it becomes lighter and can be formed into peaks. Pipe this into the inside of the egg halves while they're still in their molds. Crush different colors of rock candy and fill the halves with this. To mimic real geodes, distribute the candy so it looks darker in the middle and lightens toward the edge. Freeze the eggs for half an hour before finally removing them from the molds.

What's great about hollow chocolate eggs is that you can not only enjoy the chocolate shell, but you can also fill them with other goodies like cake or candy. However, because they're so thin, they can be tricky to make. Thankfully, this hollow Easter egg hack from Jinxy Kids works wonders. 

First, melt 8 ounces of chocolate or candy melts. Then, inflate 12 balloons to standard egg size. Now, dip or roll the balloon into the melted mixture, before putting it on a lined baking tray and popping it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Repeat the dipping process a second time. Freeze again for 15 minutes. 

Next, cut off the tied end of the balloon so that it deflates. Using your finger separate the balloon from the egg. Have some melted chocolate on hand to fill any holes in the surface of the eggs and remember to pop them back in the freezer if they get too warm during this process. If you want to add in cake and sprinkles, this is the time to do it. You can also play around with size and color by inflating balloons to different sizes and using a variety of colored candy melts.

How do you feel about a scrumptious chocolate egg that looks like a sweet version of a real egg and even has a runny "yolk" in the middle, but is actually filled with delicious cheesecake? While this may sound difficult to make, you might be surprised to learn that this is actually an easy no-bake recipe. And for an extra touch, you can even shape individual nests for the eggs using graham cracker crumbs mixed with melted butter and sugar. 

All That's Jas suggests using disposable gloves to unwrap the eggs, so you won't leave fingerprints on the surface. You can, of course, make your own hollow eggs if you have the ingredients and molds. Either way, slice off the top of the eggs using a heated knife, then refrigerate. Next, heat up a tablespoon of butter with the same amount of apricot jam, and double that amount of either apricot or mango juice. Refrigerate the smooth sauce so it thickens. This will become your "yolk." 

To make the egg "white," you'll mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice, then fold in some whipped cream. Pipe this cheesecake mixture into the eggs and make a hole in the center to add in the fruity "yolk." Chill for a minimum of 30 minutes before serving your sweet dippy eggs! 

While you can customize Easter eggs by changing the surprise in the middle, you can also create a surprisingly soft and deliciously gooey center for creme eggs and mini eggs. In other words, you can transform a pretty standard chocolate egg into an incredible Easter gift or treat with chocolate eggs in a chocolate egg! If you follow this easy Sorted Food hack, that is.

Using a double boiler or a bowl suspended over (but not touching) hot water, you'll melt 200 grams of dark chocolate pieces, then let the mixture cool slightly. Next, halve a handful of mini eggs and quarter two creme eggs. Split two inexpensive chocolate eggs and pour in the melted chocolate. Add the cut-up eggs into the halves so that they poke out of the melted mixture. For additional flavor and texture, throw in a couple of tablespoons each of white chocolate chunks and mini marshmallows, as well as a tablespoon of rainbow sprinkles for a pop of color. Finally, use some of the remaining melted chocolate piped around the edges to stick the halves back together. Chill the filled eggs for a half hour. 

For a while now, breakable candy has been seriously on-trend. So, what could be more of a hit than realistic chocolate robin's eggs that you break to reveal a treasure trove of candy gems inside? Create these sweet and cute white chocolate treats with a Hungry Happenings hack.

First, you need to create the speckles. Do this by making some light cocoa candy melt thinner by using a dipping aid. Alternatively, you can melt and temper cocoa butter and add it to chocolate, or even simply color some cocoa butter if you have some available. Then, dip a clean brush into the mixture and flick it over some egg-shaped molds. Keep cleaning and drying the brush to keep the speckles light. Continue the process until you're happy with the speckly results. 

When you're ready, use light blue candy melts to create the egg, making the color less intense by adding white candy melts. Let the hollow eggs sit on some parchment paper, with the inside of the mold facing down. That way excess chocolate drips out and keeps the chocolate shells from becoming overly thick. Unmold the shells, filling one half with candy. Seal a filled and empty half together by slightly melting the edges of the empty side in a heated pan. All you need now is a cute little hammer to break open those speckled eggs and enjoy the Easter delight inside.

If anyone's going to come up with a fun, interesting, and family-friendly Easter egg hack then it's got to be Food Network's The Pioneer Woman. She's even come up with a crispy egg idea for Easter that's sticky, hands-on, and has a chocolate egg surprise in the middle, too.

First off, melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in a packet of small marshmallows and watch the pan carefully as they melt. You're now going to take the pan off the heat and add in Rice Krispies or a similar brand of puffed rice cereal. Next, take a small plastic egg that opens in the middle and spray the inside with cooking oil (you may also want to spray your hands for easier cleanup after). Then fill both halves with the sweet cereal mixture until the space is packed full. 

Put a mini egg into the middle of the cereal mixture and squash the halves together, making sure they are filled enough to push back a little as you close the gap. Remove the plastic egg mold after just a few seconds. Wait too long, and the sticky egg treats quickly become harder to unmold. Set them upright in an egg holder, decorate with colorful sprinkles, and leave them to set and become crunchy for some extra texture.

In this hack, what was once a chocolate Easter egg is melted before your eyes, turning into an incredible hot chocolate drink. Akef Odwan, a café co-owner from Dublin, demonstrated the milky and smooth hot chocolate hack on Irish TV's Ireland AM, creating a tasty mug of liquid chocolatey wonder. Firstly, you can steam milk using a coffee machine steam wand, although it can be boiled at home in a pan and frothed up by putting it into a French press and pushing the plunger up and down repeatedly.

Then, open an Easter egg and place both halves in a mug. Pour the hot milk on top and watch the chocolate pieces melt. You can then add whipped cream on top, perhaps with some marshmallows, too. Finally, finish it off with a sprinkling of cocoa powder, with some extra Easter sparkle supplied by the addition of some edible glitter.

This may be just about the simplest leftover Easter egg idea out there, but it also looks pretty amazing and tastes great, too. So why not turn chocolate eggs into chocolate candy bark? Do so with an easy hack by Simply Delicious. Once you've tried this, it'll no doubt become a go-to every Easter. What makes this hack extra appealing is the fact that you don't need any special ingredients, techniques, or tools to make the final treat.

Start by melting your chocolate eggs. If you have a mix of milk, dark, and white chocolate, that's even better to create pretty swirls. For a baking tray of chocolate bark, you will need around 600 grams of chocolate in total. When it's melted, pour the liquid chocolate onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. It's now time for the fun part. Before the chocolate sets, add candies of your choice on top. These can be just about anything, including mini eggs, marshmallows, and sprinkles. Refrigerate to set and then break up the bark into pieces. 

If you have any leftovers of this leftover Easter egg recipe, you can potentially store the bark for a few months in an airtight container. However, this will depend on the candies you've added (and we're willing to bet it will get eaten up long before then anyway).