Easter Tomb Raider

For those that are religious Easter is about the death and resurrection of Christ. My mother-in-law used to make these Easter eggs with a twist for my husband and his brothers at Easter.

The tutorial on how to make it is below. If you make it on Good Friday you can do the whole lot and then on Easter Sunday roll the tomb rock aside, take out "Jesus" and stand him next to the tomb (if it lasts that long!). Otherwise you could make it on Easter Sunday and just have Jesus standing next to the tomb.

What you need:

• 1 x chocolate easter egg approx 10cm (4") long - the tomb
• 1 x mint pattie* -  the rock that seals the tomb
• 1 x marshmallow - the rock that Jesus' body laid on
• 1 x jelly baby - Jesus
• 2 tbsp of hazelnut spread* - this is your "glue"
• 1 butter knife
• 1 plate*

What you need

Putting it all together:

1. Take your Easter egg and mark, but don't cut, about an inch in from the fat end of the egg.

Mark the end of the egg

2. Heat your butter knife over a flame or in hot water and work it around the Easter egg until the end of the Easter egg is cut off.
Note: If you're tempted to lick the melted chocolate off the knife WAIT until it's cooled down or you'll burn your tongue.

Cut the end off the egg

3. Take a splodge of the nutella and spread it thickly on the side of the Easter egg and place it on the plate.

Add your glue

4. Now place the marshmallow into the tomb and the jelly baby on top of the marshmallow. I didn't have a jelly baby to hand so just used a jelly bear, but you get the idea ;)

Place your marshmallow

Place your "Jesus"

5. Take another splodge of your spread and place it at the entrance of the "tomb".

More glue

6. Place your mint pattie on its side covering the opening. Voila! Your Easter egg tomb.

Seal the tomb

7. On Easter Sunday, roll the tombstone aside, and take out Jesus and place him next to the tomb.

He is risen

My MIL used to make these on Easter Sunday without the marshmallow or jelly baby. She would just have the tomb ajar and then would pipe "He is risen" on the side in icing.

* There are a couple of substitutes that you can make:

• The mint pattie and plate can both be replaced by any circular chocolate or biscuit 
• The hazelnut spread can be substituted with icing or any other thick spread.

Mix it up!

Lately I've had cookie cravings but, thankfully for my waistline, I'm just that lazy that I haven't been able to motivate myself to pull out all the ingredients from the pantry and bake. While procrastinating on Pinterest the other day, I found a pin which my waistline is going to rue: Betty Crocker-esque mixes from Fake-it Frugal.

I love this concept as it's the getting everything out to measure and having all the stuff in the kitchen that puts me off baking. This way all the dry goods are measured out and all I have to do is to add the wet ingredients and bake.

This afternoon during nap time I made up a few pre-mixes:

• 2 batches for Anzac Biscuits
• 2 Chocolate Cake
• 1 muffin
• 1 chocolate brownie

Baking Pre-Mixes

Each bag has written on it the additional ingredients required and instructions. I also added the ingredients that I had put in with a view that I could re-use the ziplock bags.

These would also be great for weekends away as you don't have to bring the whole kitchen with you. If you put the dry ingredients into larger ziplock bags, you can simply add the wet ingredients to the bags for mixing and then just bring whatever you need to measure the wet ingredients and something to bak it in! Voila!