Al Roker talked to Bill Yosses, the executive pastry chef at the White House, about an Easter village he created for the White House Easter Egg Roll. The village was based on Beatrice Potter's Peter Rabbit stories. 150 pounds of chocolate were used to create the village. The White House Easter Egg Roll is streaming live here. There are also souvenir eggs being sold - see here.
The White House Easter Egg roll is streaming live online today here on whitehouse.gov. Pictured above are the 2009 White House Easter Egg Roll souvenir eggs. Each wooden egg includes the signatures of the President and First Lady. The National Park Foundation is making the souvenir wooden eggs available to the public. They can purchased here for $7.00 each. A boxed set with four eggs - blue, orange, rose and green - costs $25.
Animals at the Buenos Aires Zoo were given treats of papier mache bunnies and eggs filled with their favorite foods. Some of the animals played with the Easter treats for a while before biting them but the polar bear wasted no time biting into his Easter bunny. Take a look:
Jacques Torres is one of the chocolate merchants CBS reporter Michelle Miller visited in her report on candy and chocolate sales. We blogged about her report earlier today. Jacques Torres makes many delicious chocolate treats including the chocolate covered peeps pictured above.
Jacques has taken this traditional American Easter treat and coated it in chocolate for a combination that will excite your inner child and satisfy your adult taste buds! Grab them while they last! Each bag contains four bunnies. Choose milk or dark chocolate. Net Wt 2 oz.
The chocolate covered peeps cost $4 for a bag of four chocolate covered bunny peeps. You can buy them here on Jacques Torres' website.
A chocolate Easter Egg decorated with gold leaf and containing a real gold coin is being sold by Selfridges, a UK department store. The egg is being sold for £1,000 - about $1,467 U.S. Selfridges argues that this particular egg will retain some of its value even after the delicious chocolate is consumed. The Telegraph reports that Selfridges says the coin on the chocolate egg is worth 900 pounds.
The coin embedded in the modest-sized egg, no higher than a foot, weighs exactly one troy ounce – 10 per cent heavier than a standard ounce and the measurement used in the gold industry. At the end of last week gold was trading at $905 an ounce (£610).
Selfridges insists, however, the coin is a particularly rare one that the Royal Mint no longer produces and is therefore worth £900.
For those unconvinced by the investment returns offered by the coin, can console themselves with the knowledge that the egg is made by one of London's finest chocolate companies, Melt, which supplies many of the leading restaurants such as the River Cafe with their chocolates.
Ewan Venters, Director of Food and Restaurants at Selfridges says, "Don't invest in the stock market this Easter, invest in the golden egg instead, it really is worth its weight in gold – even after the fantastic chocolate has been eaten."
The Nielsen Company reports (PDF file) that consumers spend more candy during the week leading up to Easter than during Valentine's Day. However, Halloween sells over 25% more candy than Easter. Consumers also by lots of fresh eggs for decorating during Easter - over 61 million dozen eggs are expected to be purchased this Easter holiday. Here are some tidbits about consumer spending during Easter and Passover from Nielsen.
Nearly 71 million pounds of chocolate candy is sold during the week leading up to Easter. By comparison, nearly 48 million pounds of chocolate candy is sold during Valentine’s week and nearly 90 million pounds of chocolate candy is sold during Halloween week.
More than 61 million dozen eggs are sold during the week leading up to Easter. Easter week is the top egg selling week of the year with sales 45 percent above average weekly sales. Easter Saturday (April 11) is the top buying day of the year for fresh eggs, followed by Good Friday (April 10).
Consumers are expected to spend more than $3.5 million on matzo, the traditional unleavened bread, during the week leading up to Passover. The week leading up to the holiday is the highest sales week for matzo and matzo meal/mixes, with more than $1.2 million in sales expected.
Nearly 1.5 million bottles, or $6.5 million in sales of kosher table wine, a traditional part of the Passover Seder, will be sold during the four weeks leading up to Passover, representing approximately 13 percent of the total year's sales of kosher wines. Approximately 65 percent of that amount will be sold during the two week period just before and during the Passover holiday.
Pictured above is the Easter Egg Decorating Kit from Williams-Sonoma. Williams-Sonoma has more information (including a video) about the Easter egg kit here.
Newsweeksays the large chocolate bunny is the king of calories when it comes to Easter candy. They say the average seven-ounce rabbit clocks an impressive 1,050 calories. Another Easter candy high in calories on Newsweek's list is Hershey's Hollow Milk Chocolate Egg, which has 660 calories and 41 grams of fat. The shell alone is 570 calories says Newsweek.
Reese's Peanut Butter Egg, Cadbury Creme Egg and Cadbury Chocolate Eggs were also on Newsweek's list of the eight most fattening Easter candies. Even the sugary Peeps made the list. Newsweek says of Peeps: "A few of these fluffy, sugar-filled treats can add up quickly. Go through a row of four bunnies and you're at 130 calories. Peeps are fat-free but do weigh in heavy on the carb count--each little rabbit has 8 grams of sugar alone, adding up to 32 grams in a serving of four."
Chic Report says Armani is selling these delightfully packaged white, milk and dark chocolate Easter chocolate eggs at its flagship store, Armani/5th Avenue in New York City. BKRW has a couple more photos of the chocolates here. Armani had similar chocolate eggs last year and they made Times Online'slist of the 20 best chocolate Easter eggs.
The Armani chocolate Easter eggs will be available only until the end of May.
The Easter bunny will not be delivering quite as many marshmallow peeps, chocolate bunnies and other goodies this year. NRF's 2009 Easter Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that Americans will spend an average of $116.59 on Easter candy, gifts, food and decorations, down from an average of $135.03 last year. That's a drop of nearly 14%.
The survey found that most people celebrating Easter will opt for less expensive celebrations this year. Americans' largest Easter expense will be in preparing a meal, with the average person expected to spend $37.67 on food (down from $41.09 last year). People will also spend on gifts ($17.30 vs. $21.42 last year), flowers ($7.55 vs. $9.11 in 2008) and candy ($16.55 vs. $18.12 in 2008).
Even though Easter falls three weeks later than it did in 2008, fewer consumers are planning to purchase new spring attire this year. According to the survey, Americans will spend an average of $19.44, down from $23.82 last year. The April 12th Easter holiday date gives retailers more time to entice shoppers with Easter merchandise but the recession has consumers less interested in buying it.
People may not be buying as much for the Easter holiday but they are spending more on candy overall during the recession.
Just Born has released two new Peep flavors in time for Easter. They include
Chocolate Mousse Flavored Marshmallow Bunnies and Orange Chicks and Green Bunnies. They also came up with a new recipe for an Easter Basket Cake.
Ingredients:
Your favorite color(s) of Peeps Marshmallow
Chicks
1 bag of Mik and Ike Jelly Beans
1 standard box cake mix - see package for additional ingredients
2 containers of vanilla frosting
1 cup shredded coconut
1 oz. green food coloring
1/3 cup water
Directions:
Prepare cake mix according to package directions using two 8” round cakes. Bake
cakes and let cool.
To layer, place one cake on a plate and top with vanilla frosting. Place second cake on top
of first. Lightly frost entire cake.
Chill cake in refrigerator for one hour.
Add a second coating of frosting. Using a large serving fork, create vertical and horizontal
lines to make a basket-weave design in frosting on side of cake.
Spread coconut shavings onto a tray. Mix 20 drops of green food coloring with 1/3 cup
water in a spray bottle. Spray green color onto coconut shavings or add drops directly
onto coconut and mix well.
Place coconut on top of cake. Decorate with Peeps Marshmallow Chicks and Mike and Ike Jelly Beans.
The recipe makes 12 servings. You can also find the recipe here (PDF file)
In honor of Easter, take a look at this video of Martha Stewart and Conan O'Brien decorating Easter eggs on the 500th episode of her show. Happy Easter!
Yes, those are Peeps masquerading as sushi. This is one of the fabulous photos sent in by readers to the Seattle Times. Mark Tometsko of Seattle sent this one in (it's our favorite). See the rest of the entries here. No Country for Old Peeps is pretty hilarious, as well.
Easter is this coming Sunday and if you want to try something different for the kids' Easter baskets, the folks at Family Fun have some great ideas for fun baskets that you and the kids can make together the day before. This video from The Today Show illustrates some of the creative and fun ideas they have -- we especially like the bunny basket made with cotton balls. Even the littlest child can work on that one. Of course, she'll probably end up with a few cotton balls glued into her hair, but hey -- it's a learning experience. You can get full craft instructions at the Family Fun website.
Just Born is adding a new shape of Peep to its line-up of tasty marshmallow treats. The new addition is called Marshmallow Yellow Tulips. This is the first new Spring shape of Peeps added since the 1950s. Just Born will also be making the popular Chicks, Bunnies and Eggs again this year in time for Easter.
Will Ferrell was recently transformed into a marshmallow Peep. Will Ferrell is the celebrity people think looks the most like a Peep according to a recent survey. Here's a video of Peeps tulips and chicks being made at Just Born's Peeps factory.
The Nielsen Company 
Newsweek 
The Easter bunny will not be delivering quite as many marshmallow peeps, chocolate bunnies and other goodies this year. NRF's 2009 Easter Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that Americans will spend an average of $116.59 on Easter candy, gifts, food and decorations, down from an average of $135.03 last year. That's a drop of nearly 14%.
Just Born is adding a new shape of 
