Sweet Easter treats to tweet about

Easter treats go beyond chocolate eggs. From Alain Ducasse’s abstract chocolate chicks to Dolce & Gabbana’s Sicilian colomba, a dove-shaped cake signalling renewal and made for sharing, here are five of our favourites, to tuck into now or give year round.

5 irresistible Easter treats

A perfect egg

It was a decade ago that the now 40-something Edwin Yansané opened his chocolate ‘factory’ in Paris. By his own admission, the chocolatier’s world view is ‘deeply Parisian’ and he makes full use of the city’s multi-ethnic culinary influences in his search of inspirational ingredients. As well as his gastronomic leanings, Yansané is fascinated by tattooing and considered a career in psychology before choosing a future in chocolate. A smart choice? You decide when you savour one of his ‘mentalist’ concoctions, such as this oozing boiled egg, dripping with peanut praline. 

L'Œuf coque cacahuète, €18.33, at Edwart

A mouthwatering miscellany

Just look at the little chocolate chick at the top of our story. Stripped of all its cutesy fluff and hatched in a wondrous origami form. And it is no less adorable for it, which just goes to show that good design can be ephemeral and tasty. Fresh from chef Alain Ducasse's Le Chocolat confectionery line, the chocolate chick is only a tiny part of the Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse ‘gourmet nest’ story. There are woodpeckers, hens, swans and ducks and even a chocolate peacock in this delectable flock, each offered in 45 per cent cocoa milk-chocolate and 75 per cent cocoa dark-chocolate varieties. And that’s only the start: tiny chocolate bells, eggs and bite-size lobsters are chiming and scuttling their way into boutiques and department stores now. 

Praliné treats, pictured, £21, at Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse, Coal Drops Yard, London, and boutiques throughout Europe

A golden egg

Alongside delicious bread and pastries, chocolate is something of a preoccupation at Birley Bakery, and it has its own chocolate factory in London’s Battersea to show for it. As you’d imagine, the bakery on Chelsea Green is a cornucopia of chocolate creations this weekend, and the Golden Crunch milk-chocolate egg with roasted Piedmontese hazelnuts, is a highlight. The Italian Easter colomba, a panettone-like egg cake studded with candied orange and laced with Tahitian vanilla, is also worth picking up for an Easter breakfast treat. 

Egg, £85, and Colomba, £36, at Birley Bakery

A curly confection

Whenever I’m flying out of Geneva airport, the Sprüngli chocolate boutique, conveniently on the corner before I head down to the gate, is my last point of call. The legendary Swiss chocolatier’s variety of shapes, recipes and figurines makes it the perfect stop for a last-minute gift spree. To be honest, I’m often the only giftee I can think of in the moment, but less selfish types might opt for an elegant Sprüngli chocolate bunny, its tall form as if imagined by a 1950s illustrator. But it's this unruly, curly little Easter rabbit that takes my fancy – it’s one sad eye just begging me to take it home and scoff it before it cries. 

Rocher Bunny in milk chocolate and crunchy almond slivers, CHF39, at Sprüngli

A peace offering

Dolce & Gabbana cakes, created in partnership with Italian fine food specialist Fiascanaro, are delicious all year round, and so is the fashion duo’s Sicilian Easter colomba. Colomba – dove – cakes are shared in Italy at Easter as a symbol of peace and rebirth. As you’d expect, Dolce & Gabanna’s highly illustrated cake-tin designs are something of a gift in themselves, and each D&G cake is delivered in a matching gift bag. This colomba tin is decorated in a Sicilian Maiolica motif. Inside, the dove-shaped cake is infused with candied orange, Marsala, sugar crystals and almonds. 

Colomba by Fiasconaro x Dolce & Gabbana. £49, at Fiasconaro