There’s nothing quite like a weekend at my parents house – it’s my favourite place in the world. Always chaotic, noisy and full of life (that’s what you get with a family of 9) there are also peaceful spots in the garden and lots of cups of tea made by Mum, who tirelessly looks after everyone and especially loves having a baby around again (but isn’t so keen on being photographed).

Rhiannon’s 15th Birthday cake – it’s a longstanding family tradition to have a cake with a shape!

My little big brother Dan and his lovely girlfriend Emily

The light was too good to miss – Lucy and her squeeze Ollie

Meet Archie, my miniature shetland pony. He’s living at my parents at the moment, but as I am determined Isabella will love horses as much as I do, she has started her riding lessons on him already ;-)

 

This is my sisters miniature shetland pony, Archie’s current companion.

When I was 9 I asked my Mum and Dad for pony.  I think every 9 year old girl asks their parents for a pony, but few get the outcome I did.  I imagined a gleaming palamino, leading me to glory and rosettes at every local show, the envy of all my friends as I galloped about and flew over huge show jumps.  Instead I was presented with an old, arthritic donkey, Belinda, and her two year old, unbroken, slightly wild younger companion Louise.  My dreams were shattered.

Those donkeys grew to be our best friends, stars in made up gymkhanas in our front field, even being persuaded to jump – when they could be bothered.  Belinda died some time ago, and Louise suddenly followed her, unexpectedly, aged 22 a couple of years ago.  The field never looked quite the same with a donkey in it, and so Mum searched high and low for a miniature donkey for Dad’s birthday in April.  Meet Zara:

Zara isn’t just fat, we are expecting a miniature donkey foal in July.  I don’t think anything sounds much cuter than that.

Ears!

Lovely soft velvet nose

 

The latest additions are Branston and Pickle, a pair of shy pygmy goat kids.

In case you hadn’t noticed, we have a bit of a thing for sweet mini animals.  I balance that out a bit with my 17.2hh thoroughbred, who Archie can walk underneath!

I first saw these Easter eggs in the shops a couple of years ago and when I was offered some duck eggs last week by my lovely riding instructor Sara Ussher, I decided to make them for my family (another occasion when I wished my parents had stuck to two kids).  They were also Pinterest inspired like many of my slightly crazy, over the top, recent projects.

A simple idea – the original Easter egg mould, is…..an egg of course.  Simply empty out the eggs original contents and replace with chocolate. Easy.

Yeah.  It is easy, but it’s time consuming, especially with duck eggs which are at least twice as big as chickens eggs.

 Martha Stewart has pretty comprehensive instructions that I won’t repeat here.  I don’t think you need to make it as complicated as that though.  Simply make a hole in the bottom of the egg with a pin, and then make a bit bigger and a bit bigger (gently), until it’s about the size of of a 5p piece.  Then you need to stick something in the egg to break up the yolk (I used a cake skewer).  Wriggle it about a bit and then the egg will come out of the hole when held upside down.  It comes out s l o w l y.

I then followed good old Martha’s instructions to sterilise the eggs (boil the shells with a tablespoon of vinegar for 10 mins – start with cold water).

 

Here they are drying after being sterilised:

Ready to fill with chocolate:

Melt the chocolate and put in a piping bag.  These duck eggs are BIG – each one holds about 175 grams of chocolate.  Much more than a hollow Easter egg.  I didn’t bother tempering the chocolate, far too much hassle and (in my opinion) unnecessary.

Leave to set, putting them in the fridge speeds it up a bit.

Next, decoration.  I didn’t have any brown paint but wanted a natural look, so I used some instant coffee mixed with a little bit of water to make a thickish dye, and used a paintbrush to splat it onto the shells

Once dry I stuck stickers over the holes to make them look finished off.  I’ve got a Cath Kidston sticker book which had some perfect little round stickers, but you could use any stickers that cover the hole.

Finished.  A basket of surprise eggs.  Pretty, natural and rustic.  I’ll let you know how they taste.

Happy Easter!