Easy and cost effective Easter treats

We could all use a little budget help right now, and with the cost of groceries going through the roof, here are some of our favourite ways to make the Easter chocolate budget go a little bit further, without skipping all the delicious fun and flavour.

Rocky-road half eggs filled with joy

This trick makes one big egg go twice as far and still bring all the fun. It's a great way to bulk out fancier Easter items with some of the more cost-effective treats. Note, you can do this trick with large of medium hollow eggs. And it's a bit of an evolution of filling hollow eggs with custard or anything you lie really.

Ingredients:

• Large eggs, halved vertically

• ½ cup marshmallows, chopped

• ½ cup jellybeans

• 8 crushed biscuits of choice

• 200g milk chocolate

• 100g white chocolate

• Sprinkles of choice

• Easter decorations of choice

Method:

1. Melt the milk chocolate in 20 seconds bursts in the microwave, stirring in between, until it smooth.

2. In a large bol mix together the melted chocolate, jellybeans, marshmallow and crushed biscuits – reserving some of each for topping – and then divide the 'rocky road' mixture between the half eggs, piling it in.

3. Top with reserved biscuit, jellybeans and marshmallows to finish the look.

4. Melt the white chocolate (as above with the milk chocolate) and then drizzle over the top and scatter with sprinkles. Chill until set.

Chocolate birds nest cupcakes

This trick leans-in to more cost effective cupcakes and decorates the top with just a few eggs, bringing all the Easter joy, but making a few Easter themed items go a long way. And they look so cute.

Ingredients:

• 200g melted chocolate

• 1 x bag Chang's crispy noodles

• 1 x bag speckled eggs

• 8 x pre-made and iced cupcakes (or make your own)

Method:

1. Gently melt the chocolate in the microwave in 20 seconds bursts, stirring in between, until smooth.

2. Stir in the changs noodles until coated in the chocolate and then shape the mix into nests in a silicone cupcake tin and chill to set.

3. Release the nests from the cupcake moulds and place them on top of each cupcake, adding a couple of little eggs to each nest.

DIY better-for-you chocolate bark - dairy-free and just 3-ingredients

This trick let's you control both how sweet your treat is as well as skip dairy. It's also extremely easy to make and customise and skips out on any fillers and stabilisers. Even better, it's easy, delicious and a lot of fun.

Ingredients: in a 1:1:1 ratio of equal parts - so you can make as much as you like.

• Extra virgin coconut oil, liquid

• cocoa powder

• maple syrup

• (optional) sprinkles of choice to decorate

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients except the sprinkles together until smooth and pour into a lined tray.

2. Chill for a couple of minutes and then scatter with sprinkles and decorations over the top and freeze until needed.

3. Serve chilled and break into bark pieces.

Note: you can also pour this mix into chocolate moulds and make individual chocolates too. But the bark looks very Easter festive.

Homemade simple chocolates

This one is a lot cheaper than buying Easter specific chocolate from big-name brands. Cooking chocolate is a lot cheaper than dedicated Easter chocolate and it can be great creative fun to DIY your own Easter collection. It's as simple as buying some silicone chocolate moulds from any kitchen store and going from there.

Ingredients:

• 200g dark chocolate

• 200g milk chocolate

• 200g white chocolate

• Optional: food colours (green, pink etc)

Tools:

• Chocolate moulds of choice

• Piping bags

Method:

1. Melt the various chocolates in 20 second bursts in the microwave, stirring in between, until smooth enough to pour into piping bags.

2. Divide the white chocolate into 2 or 3 bowls and colour some using the optional food colouring to create pastel tones.

3. Use a piping bag to pipe chocolate into the moulds in patterns and colours and chill until set.

Jane de Graaff is Today's kitchen expert, food writer and recipe developer and content creator for fun family recipes of all kinds.

Find all Jane's food adventures, tricks and tips on Instagram and TikTok