The eggstraordinary connection

From painting them in bright colours, hunting them down, or just devouring them on the spot, here’s why Easter eggs are still a thing, writes Avijit Ghosh

Think Easter and it’s given that one is instantly reminded of Easter eggs: the ornate piece of edible history. Much like the roasted lamb, hot cross buns, Simnel cake, honey glazed carrots and sweet potatoes, these hand-painted, hunted goodies continue to remain a significant part of not just Easter celebrations that marks the end of the month-long abstinence period called Lent, but also its essence. Just how significant is the Easter egg to the Easter celebrations can be gauged by simply
looking at the different traditions that mark the day beginning with the painting of the egg, the hiding, the hunting and of course the gifting.

In fact, every major transformation that has built Easter as we know and celebrate today has been around these eggs that back in the day were an early springtime treat. History states how people would collect hen eggs — and later those of the chicken — hard boil them and store them to be distributed during Easter, which seasonally meant the beginning of spring and a bounty of produce that came along with it. Interestingly, these hard eggs that came to be known as resurrection eggs thanks to their association with the spring festival, weren’t just for gifting back then, they were also part of the holy offering in the church and were paid to the lord as a tribute as well.

Over the years, it was the latter tradition of offering eggs — both boiled and fresh — that gave way to the ritual of morning egg gifting, and in doing so, resulted in not only elevating the egg to become synonymous with Easter, a festival that celebrates rebirth but also spewed an industry that worked at giving the simple hard-boiled egg, a befitting transformation. Whether it was the painting and decorating of eggs in the 13th century that many believe was inspired by the Sumerians and Africans who painted and decorated ostrich eggs for their festivals; the Victorian era egg-shaped toys for children that began the tradition of surprise eggs; or the priceless creations of Carl Fabergé in the 19th century for the Russian Czar and Czarina that turned the humble egg into a work of art and luxury. However, the transformation that made the maximum impact on making Easter eggs relevant was when these hard-boiled goodies were turned edible, and by that I mean one could devour it completely — egg, shells, yolk and anything that could be stored within. The first was around the 15th century when the senate of Lübeck Germany faced a shortage of flour that was often used to make eggs for church offerings and ordered their bakers to make marzipan instead. Thus, began a tradition of gourmet Easter eggs that reached its zenith around the 19th century when JS Fry & Sons of England ideated the chocolate egg. It was an instant hit. Chocolate, that was till then a privilege of the rich and royal, proved to be a proverbial nail in the boiled egg coffin as Cadbury turned it commercial. That was 1875, exactly two years after Fry
had thought and created the first Easter egg made with chocolate.

The advent of the chocolate Easter egg changed not just the way eggs were gifted — which till then were eggs painted and then gold leafed or sent as a “seasonal gift” in a silver cage as it was from the Vatican to Henry VIII — and enjoyed but made too. While the first chocolate eggs from Cadbury were plain chocolate treats, over the years, history has given enough muses to pastry experts around the world to play around with the egg, which takes the centre stage in celebrations. From being the showpiece where some of Fabergé’s masterpieces were recreated to paying a tribute to the Victorian era’s egg-shaped toys where each beautifully painted egg would encase an array of sweet treats and even a toy to brilliant deceptive creations that would resemble the traditional hard-boiled egg, only, in this case, it would be made with different kinds of chocolate and would be delightfully edible.

Natural, hand-painted eggs continued to be a part of the celebrations but mostly as games that were popularised by Queen Victoria who is said to be rather fond of the tradition of gold leafing her morning Easter eggs and hand-painted decorative eggs that were strewn around in the lawn to be found during the day. Edible eggs made with sweetened flour, marzipan and later chocolate were reserved for the table to indulge. That was until Easter shifted to hotels, where the egg was further elevated to this amazing piece of art that came not just with the flair of surprises but wonderment too. No more eggs were simply presented as eggs but had elements to them that were open to interpretation. Thanks to the likes of Auguste Escoffier, who popularised the pastel-hued eggs, and in later years Alain Ducasse, Easter eggs took on a whole new meaning. Today, these well thought, exquisitely designed masterpieces not only redefine to what great lengths edible art can travel to recreate a vision, but are a statement too.

Take for instance Chef Ducasse’s version that presented the egg not just as an egg but as a chocolate rabbit that had a small almond praline egg inside. It was a tribute not only to the Easter tradition but also to the 17th-century folkloric Osterhase, a German egg-laying hare, and its association with the springtime festival. Or, the Easter egg was created by the homegrown brand Faber, which used the egg to introduce the world to the fifth chocolate, ruby. One of my personal favourites however remains the egg in a gold cage that took about a week to prepare with a small team of three crafters working on it for at least half a day, handcrafting each ornament that would adorn the creation. Inspired by the Fabergé masterpieces that were presented to the Czarina Catherine, the chocolate iteration was made of couverture chocolate and used fruit leather to represent the jewels embedded into the bejewelled egg, while different kinds of chocolate were used to fill in the two eggs that were placed one inside the other.

The reason it became such a memorable creation wasn’t that it was one of the most laborious of the many Easter eggs but for the sheer number of techniques this iteration took to come to life — from the traditional practice of dyeing the egg in edible colours that were created using natural spices and flowers, to
experimenting the Sumerian style of colouring the egg using spray brush technique to creating mousse and jelly forms to give the finished egg a closeness to the Fabergé work. In fact, much of the ornaments were hand made including the mousse styled pillow the Easter egg sat on. That was a few years back. Since then there have been many interpretations thanks to the different techniques that allow us to create edible soil, grass and even the theatrics of an eggshell cracking to reveal a surprise.

And yet, in doing so, there is one theme that even such elaborate eggs continue to advocate — that of starting afresh and new, only in a delicious way. Little wonder then that eggs have remained an eggstraordinary part of Easter — and will continue to do so.

(The author is a seasoned pastry chef.)