We’re looking for top tips for Easter cooking: Do you use cabbage leaves or onion skins to dye fresh eggs or do you make mini-simnel cakes for Easter? Share your tips for chocolate treats or food-related Easter activities here...

The best tip wins a bottle of bubbly! The winner will be announced here on April 18th...

The UKTV Food team

I would like to know where you get the wine glasses that you use on the set with the wide stems. I have searched for them but have had no luck!

I saw some in Homebase yeasturday.

I mean yesturday.(typing error).

You can get them in Debenhams as well!

I like to decorate my hard boiled eggs with funny faces (usually use felt pens for eyes etc.) and stick on cotton wool or strands of wool for hair. If you are clever you can make a look-alike for each family member. Easter bonnets for the egg faces can be made out of old egg box bits decorated with flowers or bits of lace stuck on. Always a good laugh! An easy way for young children to decorate cold hard boiled eggs is to let them us sticky shapes to make weird and wonderful patterns - not too much mess and instant results!

I have been making chocolate nests on Good Friday since my eldest son was 2 and he is 18 soon. He made them at his nursery and brought one home for me when the easter hols began. They are so simple and so sickly but oh so good. Just melt a large bar of a good brand of milk chocolate and crumble in some shredded wheat breakfast cereal until coated, spoon into paper bun cases and top with mini eggs of a well known brand.Leave to set. Everyone loves them and I have to send a batch to work with my husband

hi its mrs best i just wanted to know alot of recipes have got cream in and leeks in it is there anything else i can use apart form them ill be greatful to here from you thank you

why not add mature cheddar cheese to your home made hot x buns and spread a little apple sauce on the cheese. delicious!!!

Janine...p'raps you could use crème fraîche in cooking, instead of cream; it has more flavour and it doesn't "split."

For a no-cook (and no dieting!) Easter pud., put some fresh or thawed soft fruit in one of those wine glasses, plus some raspberry sauce if you have it, then a layer of crème fraîche, sweetened with a little sieved icing sugar; top with a layer of dark, soft brown sugar and leave in 'fridge for several hours, to caramelise.

For a tasty Easter Snack try hot cross buns toasted with Wendesleydale cheese mmmmmmmmm yum yum

A good tip is to use the kids (or yours) Easter Egss in a fondue and use fruit!

Hi - One of the nicest ways to decorate your eggs for Easter is to go out and pick some of the lovely seasonal yellow gorse flowers and put them in with your eggs in the boiling water - lovely springtime yellow eggs!

Cook scrambled eggs as normal but add salmon for a special Easter treat.

For an Easter-themed bread and butter pudding I use sliced hot cross buns instead of sliced bread and add some mixed spice to the custard. Yum!

And how about mini meringue nests flavoured with a little cocoa before cooking topped with white chocolate zabaglione or whipped cream and decorate with choccie mini eggs. Cute and tasty!

Decorate your eggs using the rich colours of natural dyes which used from vegetables or spices e.g.

Orange: Paprika, 4 tablespoons per 1 pint water
Yellow: Tumeric, 4 tablespoons per 1 pint water
Blue: Red cabbage, about 8 ozs, shredded, per pint of water
Red: Pomegranate juice in place of water OR 1lb red onion skins
Pink: Cranberry juice in place of water OR 1lb shredded beets per pint of water
Green: Spinach (fresh or frozen), 1lb per pint of water
Ochre: Onion skins, 1lb of the dry outer skins
Mocha: 1 pint of strongly brewed coffee in place of water
There are two ways to colour eggs, boiling or cold dipping. Boiling allows dyes to penetrate the eggshell and results in darker, more even colours. The cold-dip method can be better if you want to eat the eggs and safer if children are helping out.


Boil Method:
Place 6-8 eggs in a single layer in a large pot and add enough water to cover eggs by one inch. Add some white vinegar (2 tablespoons per pint of water). Add dye ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer for 20-30 minutes. The motion of the eggs in the boiling water ensures that the colour will be even on the egg. The resulting egg will be very hard-boiled and inedible, as it picks up the flavour of the dye.


Cold-Dip Method:
Combine dye materials, vinegar and water in the same proportions as the boil method above, in a large pot. Simmer 20-30 minutes, then strain and cool. Dip hard-boiled eggs in cold dye until desired colour is achieved, soaking anywhere from 5 minutes to several hours in the refrigerator. Turn eggs occasionally to ensure even dyeing. Dry on paper towels or in egg cartons.

My best food-related Easter activity is... Get on a plane and sample Greek Easter!! (Usually a week after ours, but varies). The festivities are marvellous and the variety of food egg-cellent, apart from the soup of innards that they have, yuck!

Open chocolate egg, eat and enjoy. Works for me

I've never really been into decorating hard boiled eggs, probably cos I never liked boiled egg. My mother is having all of us to dinner tomorrow evening but there won't be any egg rolling. (Niece and nephew probly won't want do anything but eat more chocolate anyway )

Hope everyone has a nice Easter.

Mo

I use the smaller chocolate easter eggs as dessert for Sunday. Split them in half, fill with whatever fruit you please, and top with either whipped cream or ice cream. Chocolate sprinkles, Smarties, whatever you fancy on the top of that! Calorie overload but it's so worth it!

Marbled eggs make a great ice-breaking starter! Boil eggs for a few minutes & then gently crack the shells without removing them. Put them into an infusion of tea in a pan. Half Indian tea & half something fragrant: Lapsang Soushong or Earl Grey, whatever you prefer. Hardboil the eggs & leave them in the infusion to cool. Peel them when ready to serve. They will be beautifully marbled by the tea that has seeped through the membrane & be slightly perfumed too. Halve & serve yolk side down on salad leaves with a little curried mayonnaise. Worth the trouble for a special occasion - looks stunning with goose eggs!

I keep the plastic inserts from boxed easter eggs to make home made chocolate eggs each year. It looks great if you layer dark, white and milk chocolate. And the small sized eggs are best

Thanks for all your Easter suggestions. It was a hard decision, there were some great ideas, but the team have voted krusts tip for turning Easter Eggs into fondue as the winner!

Krust - we will be in touch!

Thanks once again for all your great ideas!

UKTV Food.