Looking for those Easter treats?
View(s):Happy Easter from all of us here at Take 3! Today, we set out to find some of the ingredients for your Easter feast (and for the egg hunt you might want to have later in the garden.) Here’s what you need to know.
Fine Things | Hilton, 2, Sir Chittampalam A Gardiner Mawatha Colombo 2 Tel: 011-2544644
While they’re a little harder on your wallet than Kandos, the Easter chocolate range at Fine Things is beautifully finished and a lot more adventurous. You have three options on their handmade chocolate Easter Eggs – milk, dark and white and each is priced at Rs.600 for 80g. The small size is Rs. 125.
Anyone for a weakness for hot cross buns will be pleased to know that at Rs.110, they’re the most affordable things on the menu. Fine Things is also turning out a range of speciality Easter Cakes – the Easter Bunny Gateau is Rs.3000 and cupcakes in chocolate chip, nougat and mixed fruit toppings come at Rs.250.
The best Easter egg I ever had was an enormous chocolate orb. Fulfilling its promise, inside it was filled with tiny, delicious chocolates. Fine Things comes closest to fulfilling that fantasy with their ‘bunny in egg’ offering – its Rs.600 for the large, Rs. 400 for the small. Among their other playful options are Easter hens, hatching chicks and different kinds of rabbits.
Kandos | No. 38, Thurstan Road, Col 3. Tel: 011 2497500
The Kandos shop on Thurstan Road is an old favourite with chocoholics looking to get their fix of chocolate coated biscuits but around Easter, they have a whole display case packed full of chocolate eggs and bunnies, each individually wrapped, in bright metallic paper. They’re very reasonably priced at Rs.135 for 90g and Rs. 50 for the smaller 30g eggs. Drop into the shop and they’ll let you have a taste of their Easter eggs with a crunchy, creamy nutcracker filling before you buy. These are a bit more expensive at Rs.140 but so much more appealing than a hollow egg. The Easter bunnies vary in price from Rs.50 – Rs.425 depending on the size you pick. Chocolate bells (Rs.50) and chocolate ducks (Rs.30) complete the seasonal offerings.
Wandering around the small store, it’s easy to get distracted though by all the other chocolates on sale. (We buy a caramel and chocolate slice for Rs.75) but the chocolate bottles filled with marzipan and arrack (Rs.70 per piece) offer an affordable, uniquely Sri Lankan take on those ubiquitous chocolate liqueur boxes.
Coffee Stop | Cinnamon Grand, 77, Galle Road, Colombo 3 Tel: 011-2437437
An oasis of affordability in one of the city’s upmarket hotels, Coffee Stop offers an impressive range of Easter goodies. The handmade chocolate Easter eggs come in milk, dark, and white chocolate with the occasional blend thrown in for variety. The fillings are softer, creamier versions of the same flavours. The only drawback is they’re sold in packs of 570g and are priced at Rs.3000.
Eggs are something of a theme: we enjoy sampling a gorgeous Chinese custard tart topped with an oozy, golden yolk and slivers of fried onions (Rs.200) – a satisfying blend of the salty and the sweet. There are also quail egg Danish pastries (Rs.80), Lombardy Easter loaves (Rs.490) decorated with quartered quail eggs or whole chicken eggs embedded in twists of bread.
There are fat little vanilla chocolates filled with truffles (Rs.400 for 3) and hot cross buns (Rs.100) The mini-cakes are really very lovely to look at and imaginatively decorated. Some are two tier and come in promising flavours like carrot cake, brownie fudge and blackened cake, the chef’s take on a rich, moist, devilled chocolate cake – priced in the Rs. 1800 a kg range. Coffee Stop are promising to produce five fresh cakes each day, which should help ensure the cake tastes as good as it looks when you cut into it.
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