Easter treats get artistic treatment in the hands of Vancouver chefs
This year’s goodies range from Jurassic-inspired eggs to pretty pink flamingos
Buttermere Patisserie’s Easter eggs are hands-on galactic treats. Photo by Leila Kwok
WITH CHERRY BLOSSOMS beginning to tinge Vancouver pink again, Easter is just around the corner. As spring ingredients start to come into season, Easter celebrations are all the more delicious. All over Vancouver, chefs are making sweet treats that might make you want to be your own Easter bunny.
Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Pâtisserie’s Easter collection is full of whimsy. Chef Christophe Bonzon’s two limited-edition desserts weave traditional French baking with bright spring flavours. Banana bread, coconut bavarois, passionfruit, and apricot confit on a crunchy, coconut-milk chocolate base create the Sunny Side Up, resembling an egg on toast. The Hot Cross Croiss is a play on both the traditional Easter bun and the classic French pastry, with a croissant swirl of cinnamon cardamom pastry cream, raisins, and an orange rum glaze. Chez Christophe Easter Showpiece Collection features Smash-Ables: chocolate eggs that can be smashed open to reveal marshmallows, crispy chocolate, and chocolate-covered cereal pearls.
Temper Chocolate and Pastry has some over-the-top indulgences, like chef Steven Hodge’s milk chocolate Egg Carton Showpiece, filled with a rainbow of chocolate eggs, and dark chocolate Easter Egg Showpiece, available in an array of colours and full of milk, dark and white chocolate bunnies. Mini chocolate eggs and chocolate lollipops are also on offer; so are traditional hot cross buns, baked with seasonal spices, currants, and candied fruit.
Bean-to-bar chocolate is East Van Roasters’ specialty, and the non-profit social enterprise’s Easter collection features only organic, fair, and direct-trade cacao. The Chocolate Egg Box features nine eggs in three spring-inspired flavours: crispy salted caramel, lemon pistachio praline, and cream earl grey. Looking for the Easter bunny? How about two of them? Bunny Buddies consists of two chocolate bunnies, one toffee flavoured, the other cookies’n’cream. Instead of the usual carrots, EVR has bouquets of “turnip” lollipops: vegan coconut white chocolate sprinkled with toasted coconut.
Buttermere Patisserie head baker Jamie Tung has introduced three variations of a seven-inch-tall egg-shaped chocolate shell filled with assorted confections known as dragées that resemble colourful miniature eggs. meant to be cracked open, there’s the Pastel Splash Egg (made with 41% Alunga milk chocolate and feuilletine) the Pearl Egg ( with 34% Zéphy white chocolate paired with Oreo crumbs), and the Metallic Egg (Fleur de Cao dark chocolate and a caramelized hazelnut shell).
Some of Beaucoup Bakery’s seasonal treats are inspired by the Jurassic era.
Beaucoup Bakery is sprining back to prehistoric times, with dinosaur-inspired treats. Sibling duo Betty and Jacky Hung’s first Easter chocolate collection features Eggstinct, a 3.5-inch vegan dark chocolate egg, filled with pistachio almond praliné chocolate and pistachio nuts, as well as the 7-inch Dino-mite. The latter is a milk chocolate egg that comes with its own mini hammer, so you can excavate chocolate-covered cacao nibs, dark chocolate and salted caramel crispy pearls, and dinosaur-shaped passionfruit, strawberry and yuzu chocolates. (Three of the Dino-mite eggs being sold contain a $75 gift card.) Another Jurassic-era Easter treat is Beaucoup’s Hot Cross Lava Bun, a brioche bun filled with hazelnut praliné and vanilla pastry cream.
Exquisite French baked goods make up Mon Paris Pâtisserie’s Easter Pastry Box: passionfruit croissant, cranberry-and-white-chocolate milk bun, blueberry puff, blackcurrant brioche, raspberry chocolate double-baked croissant, and ham and cheese croissant. For a little DIY fun, Mon Paris is also offering an Easter Cookie Decorating Kit, with egg-shaped shortbread cookies, three piping bags full of royal icing, and pastel-coloured sprinkles. Chef Elena Krasnova’s Easter Collection also includes treats like the Springtime Chocolate Easter Egg decorated with daisies and containing two truffles: ruby chocolate and mango passionfruit.
The Lazy Gourmet’s Easter Egg Hunt kit is chock-full of caramels, handcrafted chocolate bars, mini Easter cookies, mini pastel meringues, and carrot cake truffles, with pastel Easter egg containers to boot. For those who don’t want to have to search for their sweets, the Easter Dessert Box features coconut lime tarts, shortbreads, mini house-made chocolate bars, cheesecake bites, and caramels.
At Thomas Haas Chocolates and Pâtisserie, Thumper, a chocolate likeness of that darling Bambi character, is just one of several hand-crafted seasonal sweets. The Flower Pot is another, a chocolate tulip sprouting out of a chocolate egg shell, decorated with Easter treats. To highlight the delicate flavours of spring, the pâtisserie has also created an egg-shaped chocolate lavender and blueberry cake with cassis and blueberry mousse, dark chocolate cream, and vanilla shortbread. Fresh out of the oven is the celebrated chef’s signature Easter Stollen, a springtime tradition with kirsch-soaked cherries, Sicilian pistachios, and almonds all clustered around a pistachio-almond marzipan centre.
Easter Stollen is also on the menu at the Bench Bakehouse. Chef Tracy Steele follows a traditional recipe, the rich bread studded with pistachios, rum-soaked apricots, cherries, and cranberries and filled with made-from-scratch pistachio marzipan. The Commercial Drive bakery has a Cookie Kit with three different Easter shapes, piping bags of brightly coloured icing, decorative sugar, and Easter M&M; ready-to-eat hand-decorated sugar cookies; Pavlova, a marshmallow-like meringue with a crispy shell topped with passionfruit curd, whipped cream, and fresh fruit; and more.
We love the pink flamingos made rosewater mousse and chocolate sponge from Pacific institute of Culinary Arts’ Blue Hat Bakery-Café. That’s where you can find an Easter bunny choux with strawberry cream and rhubarb jam or a classic Black Forest cake with cherries; and more.
Popina’s famous Puffcream is all dressed up for Easter. The freshly baked cream puffs are filled with a swirl of original-recipe Birchwood Dairy vanilla soft-serve ice cream loaded with Mini Eggs. Available at both Granville Island locations (in the Public Market and the Net Loft), the towering treats are made with antibiotic-free, hormone-free Fraser Valley milk.
Crack open Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory’s decorative milk chocolate eggs in marbled, striped and speckled designs to find Rocky Pop kettle corn. Chicklet is a milk chocolate chicken in its own birdhouse with an array of milk chocolate foil eggs
Make a meal of it
Elsewhere, sweet finishes show up on so many local restaurant’s Easter meals to-go menus.
Fable Diner has created an Easter Family Meal (with roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and seasonal veggies) that features ice cream sandwiches for dessert, made with chewy, rye chocolate cookies.
With its Heat and Eat Easter Dinner package, Provence Marinaside offers a classic French dessert: clafoutis aux fruits rouges. The simple, buttery cake is filled with berries and served with whipped cream and raspberry coulis, a fresh and fruity finish to a rich take-out feast. warm herb-crusted goat cheese and a choice of either Dijon-and-herb crusted lamb or carved ham
Easter To-Go from Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar’s at-home line BLVD Provisions, features a raspberry caramel dessert made by pastry chef Kenta Takahashi. It has raspberry curd, milk chocolate mousse, a layer of crunch, and caramel, the ideal balance of sweet and tart. It comes a choice of slow-roasted leg of lamb or tender boneless prime ribeye roast
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