Make it: Easy Easter Treats for Grown-ups with Thorntons

Easter and chocolate go hand in hand, but not all chocolatey treats need to be for the youngsters. When Thorntons got in touch recently and challenged us to create an Easter treat with one of their Chocolate eggs I imagined creating something that the grown-ups could enjoy. When this amazing White Chocolate Lemon Meringue egg arrived, I knew right away what I wanted to make as the centrepiece of my Easter celebrations. 

Two of my favourite desserts are Pavlova and Eton mess, so I decided to make a twist on those classics to include some chocolate lemony goodness! 

To make a White chocolate, Lemon and Raspberry Mess you will need: A Thorntons Lemon Meringue Easter egg, Meringue nests, Double cream, Raspberries, Lemon curd and to add an adult twist a little Gin (optional)

I started by.... breaking up the egg! I know, I know it will be worth it I promise. I kept the pretty centrepiece to use later and broke up the rest of the chocolate into small pieces. 

I also crushed up one large strawberry meringue, mine came in a pack of two, but if you want to use regular nests, two or three nests for the base would work. I settled the meringue over the base of my serving dish.   

Next whip up the double cream and spread it gently over the bed of meringue, mix a little Gin (if you are including it) with the lemon curd and layer that over the cream. Then add some fresh raspberries or strawberries if you prefer before sprinkling the white chocolate pieces over that layer.

Finish off by adding another layer of crushed meringue, you can add any left over cream, lemon curd and fruit as garnish to the top.

I also added some freeze dried strawberry sprinkles to make it look extra special, but you could sprinkle some extra chocolate over the top if you have some left over. How spectacular does it look as a dessert centrepiece for the Easter table. So simple to make, pretty to look at and super tasty. 

If you want to make a smaller version for a fun dessert why not layer up the same ingredients into a jar, everything looks good in a jar!

To add to your party treats why not mix up some zesty cocktails. I made a couple to compliment the sweetness of the meringue. Above you can see my version of a Tom Collins.
To make a TC Fizz mix-
50ml of Gin
25ml of lemon juice
25ml of agarve
top off with bitter lemon
garnish with ice and lemon.

And this is my version of a Moscow Mule, I am calling it a Lemon Meringue Mule!
Mix 25ml of vodka
25ml lemon juice
25ml of  honey, lemon and ginger cordail
50ml of raspberry lemonade
then top off with ginger beer
Garnish with ice, fresh raspberries and mint with a sprinkle of crushed meringue, just for fun!

These treats would also make great menu additions to a Mothers day lunch, which is this weekend if you're in the UK.  Or save them for Easter weekend at the end of the month. I don't know about you but I want a virgin Lemon Meringue Mule every Wednesday! Thanks to Thorntons for setting us the challenge and supplying the Easter egg for this post.

Sammy xxx


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Make it: Lemon and Vanilla cake

You may have noticed here over at Live it. Love it. Make it, that we LOVE cake!  There is never any reason not to have cake as far as we are concerned!

We have a few friends who make cupcakes and cakes as well, so it would be rude not to indulge! But today's beauty is all H and so of course there is a little difference than the norm of a Vanilla sponge with Jam - it wouldn't be H without it!

This is a Lemon and Vanilla sponge cake with butter cream and Lemon curd inside.  It went down a storm at work as usual and managed to not even make it to the 10.30am tea break for some!  There are some definite cake monsters at H's work! - you know who you are.

This is so simple to make and as you can see there are three cake layers to make it a mammoth cake as H felt that 2 layers just didn't look big enough - of course!  Now, if you only want 2 layers, then just do 2 thirds of the mix.  H's mum has been making this type of cake for years and its always in cookery books as a simple cake to be able to change up to whatever you want to make it into.

So to the Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4

For the cake

150g self raising flour

150g caster sugar

150g butter/margarine

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

a few drops vanilla essence

1/2 lemon juice

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until light and fluffy.  If the dough is too thick add a couple of teaspoons of warm water.

Split the mixture into 3 cake moulds or if using a tall cake tin, just do it in one go and cut the layers later.  You can then see if you want 2 or 3 layers then.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Let cool down completely

For the Filling

One filling was just Lemon Curd from a Jar - I know I could have made my own, but sometimes life is just too short!

The other filling is a simple butter cream:

250g butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

600g Icing Sugar

2 tablespoons of milk

Mix the butter and icing sugar together - add the icing sugar slowly as otherwise you will end up with a sugar cloud!

Add the vanilla essence and if required the milk to the consistency you want.

When the cake layers have cooled completely, add the butter cream and lemon curd as you want it.  H did the lower layer and top with the butter cream and then a middle layer of lemon curd. Yum!

Do you have any fail safe recipes you do regularly, we would love to hear them.  If you follow us on Instagram, we usually take pictures of the cake we eat and whatever else we get up to, so go check us out, you can find both H and Sammy on there.

Make it

H & Sammy