Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the woocommerce-gateway-paypal-express-checkout domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/itsmegan/public_html/megantaylor.london/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121
easter Archives - Megan Taylor

WHAT TO DO ON EASTER DAY DURING LOCKDOWN

Well…this is going to be an Easter like no other we have ever had before. In my 30+ years of being alive I have never spent an Easter without my parents. Crazy! Well, this year it is just going to be me, Liam, Coco (our dog) and bump. It will be quiet and incredibly different but that is why I have felt the need to make it extra special and make some new memories. I thought I would share our plans for the day incase you would like to take some of the ideas for your own. If you are alone please do contact Samaritans if you are feeling lonely. If you have the possibility to offer help and comfort to others you can sign up to help with the NHS, Samaritans and Age UK.

BREAKFAST

I am planning to have a lovely relaxed morning. For a start I will not be putting on an alarm, although I’m such a child and always wake up early on Easter and Christmas Day haha. Then I plan on sitting in bed with Liam and Coco with a hot cross bun…the smell is incredible! I think I will put the movie Hop on in the background…if Liam doesn’t mind haha. Then we will take Coco for a walk and once we get back home pop on a yummy brunch which must include hash browns and poached eggs.

MIDDAY

After brunch I am going to prep for a roast dinner. Growing up one of my favourite things about Easter and Christmas is my parents prepping the roast dinner from early on and filling the house with gorgeous scents. Since being in our new house with our new oven I have actually not made a roast dinner, so this could be a disaster, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s wonderful. When the dinner is in the oven and slowly cooking my family are all meeting on Zoom. We have planned an Easter quiz and an Easter egg hunt. We are all writing 5 questions for the quiz per household. Then for the hunt we have all decorated 5 paper eggs each which we are going to hide in our houses and let people find them through the Zoom screen haha. Who knows what it’s going to be like?!

FOOD COMA

Once dinner is ready I think Liam and I are going to eat it in front of the TV! I have never seen Peter Rabbit and it’s currently free to watch on Netflix so this will be our Easter viewing. It all sounds quite lovely doesn’t it 🙂 I am actually quite excited.

What have you got planned? How are you coping with lockdown? Are you kind of enjoying it?

 

WHAT TO DO ON EASTER DAY DURING LOCKDOWN | MEGAN TAYLOR

EASTER PARTY SLICE

Happy week of Easter and a heavily chocolate filled week. This following recipe is pure badness. There is nothing healthy about this recipe but the marshmallows are vegetarian so that makes me happy 🙂 . I believe there are 5 different chocolates in here and they all combine to make a seriously scrumptious Easter goodie. The recipe I have made is based on the idea of a tray bake, but there’s no baking involved. It is also based on the idea of a chocolate slab, but it’s too thick to be named a slab. I also cut it into squares, so shouldn’t really be called a slice. Oh well, I have decided to name it an Easter Party Slice but it can definitely be used for any occasion. I hope you enjoy the yummiest pudding I have ever created.

INGREDIENTS

Rice Pops (as much a desired-I used about 1/8 of the packet linked)
Vegan marshmallows (35g)
Maltesers small bunnies
Maltesers (80g)
Smarties (118g)
x3 bars of dark chocolate (540g)
White chocolate (approx 90g for decoration)
100s & 1000s (for decoration)

METHOD

Melt your chocolate in a pan. Very slowly over a low heat, constantly stirring.
Turn off the heat and chop your marshmallows into small pieces.
Mix in your marshmallows into your melted chocolate.
Pour in your rice pops and completely cover them in the chocolate.
Pour in your Maltesers and half of your smarties.
Pour all of your ingredients into a foil lined deep tray, baking tray, or in my case old biscuit tin.
Pat down the mixture so it is well compacted into the tin and now you can get decorating.
Sprinkle your 100s & 1000s and smarties over the mixture.
Melt your white chocolate and use a spoon to splash it about in an arty fashion.
Leave to set in a cool room and once you have cut it into your slices/slabs add the bunnies to the top.
I originally added full sized bunnies to every slice but needed my slices to be smaller to accommodate the amount of people.
So, I chopped the heads off and popped the heads on some slices and upturned feet on others.

I hope you enjoy these delectable goodies. They have barely lasted 12 hours in our house and they are all gone. Be sure to tag me if you make them x @itsmegantaylor

Lemon Drizzle Raspberry Surprise Easter Cupcakes

Happy almost Easter everyone, or happy half term to all the kiddies who are lucky enough to be on their school holidays right now. Whether or not you celebrate Easter, you can still use the bank holiday weekend as a time to celebrate the beginning of Spring and with these cupcakes you don’t even have to like chocolate. I am the biggest chocolate fiend you will ever meet but for lent I gave up chocolate and it has been a tough slog. As I have given up chocolate I decided to make Easter/Spring inspired sweet treats inspired by the BBC Good Food Lemon Drizzle classic recipe that I have used for years and years except I have added a zingy raspberry twist. I have strayed away from the classic chocolate treats you would normally expect at Easter time because with only a few days of Lent left I want to stick with it…and I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist if I created a chocolatey Easter blog post. These lemon drizzle raspberry surprise Easter cupcakes are to be a sure fire hit with the whole family…they didn’t last more than 2 hours in my house! They are also perfect to make with the kids over the Easter holidays.

Lemon Drizzle Raspberry Surprise Easter Cupcakes | Megan Taylor

INGREDIENTS

225g unsalted butter
225g self raising flour
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
2 lemons
12 raspberries
Icing sugar
Caster sugar
Frozen raspberries
Muffin/cupcake cases

I popped into my local £1 shop and Sainsburys to find the cupcake cases and decorations.

RECIPE

• Slowly mix together the butter and caster sugar until they are creamy.
• Mix in your 4 eggs one at a time.
• Add the self raising flour and the zest of 2 lemons.
• Once everything is mixed in, pour the mixture into your muffin/cupcake holders. Only half fill each cupcake case. Add a raspberry to each before topping up the cupcake case with more cake batter.
• These cupcake/muffins that I made are pretty hefty so I only managed to make 12 with my batter and these took about 18 minutes to cook. Stick a knife in the cakes every 10, 12, 14, 16 minutes to check if your knife comes out clean to know when they are ready to eat.

ICING

• Now it is time to make your sugary drizzle. I measured this by taste. Pour about a tablespoon of caster sugar into a jug then squeeze in 1 lemon and stir until the sugar dissolves.
• Pierce a fork into the cupcakes a couple of times so you can then pour your drizzle into the cakes.
• Place your cakes by an open window to dry out and cool whilst you make your lemon icing.
• I am not a fan of butter icing so I tend to use icing sugar whenever possible. I like to use icing sugar and mix it with lemon juice rather than water. Make sure your icing is quite thick so that it comes out white in colour rather than a transparent white.
• Once you spread your icing on your cake, make sure you immediately decorate that cake as the icing sets very quickly and you then wouldn’t be able to decorate with raspberries or sprinkles.

Lemon Drizzle Raspberry Surprise Easter Cupcakes | Megan Taylor

{Cake Stand : In the sale at Oliver Bonas for a crazy good price!}

I hope you all have a lovely Easter break. Let me know if you make these and tag me in any pictures
@itsmegantaylor

Are You Giving Up Anything For Lent?

Lent may be a religious thing that you either ignore or don’t even know about and I am not about to get all religious on you because I’m no religious genius and that’s just not what my blog is about. This being said I am about to give you a little insight into my rather un-religious obsession with Lent which I have had since I was in Junior school.

RELIGIOUSLY GIVING UP

Pretty much every year since I can remember I have given up chocolate for 40 days and 40 nights. The reason I gave up chocolate for the first time was I believe because my school said we should all give lent a go. I then kept giving up chocolate because I am beyond obsessed with the sugary stuff. The only problem is that I just get more and more obsessed after the quitting stint.

DENY FOR YOUR OWN GOOD

I like to give up chocolate each year because it is something unhealthy that I have an “unhealthy” obsession with. I would really like to stop craving it but I’m not sure how. My aunty even tried a little bit of NLP on me but, nope, nothing can get between chocolate and I. If you are going to give up something for lent then it is the perfect opportunity to challenge yourself to give up something that you know is bad for you. I strongly feel that there is no point in denying something from yourself just for the sake it but if you know in your heart that you should give something up then why not have a go until Easter.

(Chocolate Dipped Strawberries)

WHAT COULD I POSSIBLY GIVE UP?

There are so many things people have been known to give up, tangible or other ways. I feel that the best and most common are chocolate, sweets, crisps, cakes and biscuits. Yet there are some other clever ones such as giving up social media. This would be an amazing one for someone that is constantly on their phone logging into Facebook or Instagram but for me it is a huge part of my career so I couldn’t do that. That being said, I do think I should ease up and maybe have a night cap on my social media dependancy…I may have to discuss this in a future post.

WHEN TO GIVE IN

You are bound to have a celebratory event of some kind over the 40 days. Lent tends to fall over my dad and cousins’ birthdays and as I always give up chocolate or some kind of sweet treat this can sometimes be an issue with birthday cakes or parties. I am not one to miss out on a celebration so I always give an exception to birthdays and big celebrations because no one likes a party pooper.

I am already counting down the days to Easter. Giving up chocolate makes Easter Eggs that much more special.
Are you going to give up something this year?

Easter Present Ideas

Easter is in a matter of days and wether or not you are not religious or are far too healthy to gorge on chocolate I have devised a list of Easter Present Ideas for you to treat yourself or loved ones.



EASTER FASHION
Skinny Dip Bunny Case
I have always loved Skinny Dip cases and this one is no exception. Complete with pom pom bunny tails, everyone will want to play with your phone.
Minna Parikka Bunny Trainer
I adore these trainers and wish it could be Easter everyday so I could justify buying these…anyone fancy gifting them to me 😛
Accessorize Chick Socks
How about celebrating Easter a bit more quietly with Easter chick socks? Everyone loves a novelty sock.
Moschino Bunny Phone Case
I have owned this case for a few years and still use it every Easter. The little bunny’s face peeks over your screen to see what you are doing on your phone. Click on the link for a super cheap one on eBay.



EASTER CHOCOLATE
Giant Lindt Bunny
Everyone must have a giant Lindt bunny at least once in their life. Pure indulgence at a cost of a Kagillion pounds in body weight. My mum once bought it for our family to share. It is up to you weather your forfeight the excessive callories for fighting with your family over who gets the thick chocolate ears.
Harrods Artisan Egg
For your chocolate snob friends, this egg is the perfect present. Complete with Gianduja Chocolate within the egg and paint spattered shell it is a piece of art.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Egg
Every year I ask for a Cadbury’s egg. I don’t care what it comes with, I just want the egg. The taste of a Cadburys egg is like no other. It tastes like Easter to me.
Hotel Chocolat Extra Thick Egg
I have so much love for Hotel Chocolat and this egg is Extra Thick. Perfect for all greedy chocolate fans.



Happy Easter Holidays
x