Easter Sweets
To us, holidays are opportunities to feast festively. Sure, seeing family is great (blah, blah blah), but the real joy of Easter is the chance to eat sweets you only get to have once a year. Who doesn’t love a bright yellow marshmallow peep or a Cadbury creme egg? And that’s just what’s available at your corner Duane Reade. Just imagine how creative chocolatiers and bakeries have gotten this season. We’ve heard rumors of peep pudding at Sugar Sweet Sunshine as well as black sesame eggs and green tea bunnies at Kyotofu. There’s a killer Easter basket with candy peas, carrots and a laughing bunny at Dean & Deluca and lots more. Here’s a few of our favorite finds for Easter.
Bisous Ciao
101 Stanton St, btwn Orchard & Ludlow Sts.
212.260.3463www.bisousciao.com
The owner of this shop took her love of French macarons and global flavors she discovered traveling and created her own, very unique macaron shop. And macarons – those delicate, yet chewy meringue cookies with different fillings – are a natural fit with Easter, especially the vibrant, spring-like flavors, such as rose, poppy, sour cherry and violet. You can put together your own personalized box of different flavors for a chic, Easter treat.
Kyotofu
705 9th Ave., btwn 48th & 49th Sts.
212.974.6012
www.kyotofu-nyc.com
If you’re sick of the garden variety holiday sweets of the Easter egg sorts, Kyotofu is baking up something entirely different. This Hell’s Kitchen restaurant and bakery in one applies French technique to Japanese ingredients and the result is always exciting. This year, they’ve created an Easter gift box with an assortment of black sesame eggs, green tea bunnies, Genmai roasted rice chicks, and yuzu flowers. How cute is that? And they taste even better then they look. Or try their Easter shortbread cookies in festive shapes.
The Sweet Life
63 Hester St., btwn Essex St & Ludlow Sts.
212.598.0092
www.sweetlifeny.com
Open over thirty years, this Lower East Side shop is practically a candy institution and they are more than ready for the Easter season right now. Not a fan of fancy chocolates? The Sweet Life has Easter-themed candy corns, sour gummy bunnies (pictured right), and tons of freshly baked Easter cookies, like a yellow tulip lemon sugar cookie, which also curiously happens to be kosher.
Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery
126 Rivington, btwn Essex & Norfolk Sts.
212.995.1960
www.sugarsweetsunshine.com
Sugar Sweet Sunshine embraces every season and holiday in full force, so you can always rely on the bakers at this Lower East Side shop to come up with something inventive. This year, there’s talk of a peep pudding, but it’s still in the works. In homage to the holiday, you can top any of their signature flavors (angel food cake, pumpkin, coconut) with sugar Easter egg decorations. Our vote is the colorful pistachio cupcake with a creamy, yet light “moose” frosting.
Li-Lac Chocolates
40 8th Ave., btwn Jane & West 4th Streets
212.924.2280
www.li-lacchocolates.com
If you’re going to take the chocolate route this Easter, Li-Lac is hands down one of our favorite chocolate shops in the city. It’s great for any occasion, but come this time of year they stock up on Easter-inspired creations, including both milk and dark chocolate bunnies, ducks, lambs, and even chocolate crosses. One of our top picks for Easter this year is their crème-filled chocolate eggs. What’s so genius about Li-Lac’s eggs is they come in so many flavors, the likes of maple walnut, lemon chiffon, coconut, fudge, butter cream, hazelnut…we could keep going, but you might as well sample their fine chocolates for yourself!
Dean & Deluca
560 Broadway, btwn Spring & Prince Sts.www.sugarsweetsunshine.com212.226.6800
www.deandeluca.com
With all of the great and often hard-to-find products, you may not have noticed that Dean & Deluca has a killer candy department with some of the best gourmet candies, baked goods, and chocolates. They’ve curated a serious collection of the “best of the best,” like MarieBelle Chocolates. If you’re looking for a hostess gift, we suggest the Easter basket — stocked with a laughing chocolate bunny, D&D candy peas and carrots (we love this!), spring time jelly beans, coconut marshmallows, a red rose Easter egg, and even a bird house sugar cookie crafted by Emily’s Homemade. We also love the hand- speckled quail eggs from Knipschildt Chocolatier–shaped from white chocolate and filled with milk chocolate nougatine and served up in an egg carton wrapped in a ribbon. While you’re there, check out the individual chocolate eggs filled with passion fruit ganache, also from Knipschildt–hand crafted and presented in individual Easter baskets.
La Maison Du Chocolat
63 Wall St., btwn Hanover & Pearl Sts.
212.952.1123
www.lamaisonduchocolat.com
Talk about a luxury chocolates. This iconic Parisian shop uses only the finest ingredients in everything from their hot chocolate to truffles and even teas. For Easter, they’ve built extravagant chocolate hen houses and chocolate eggs almost too beautiful to eat. Almost. La Maison also features chocolate bunnies, and egg coffrets packaged in several flavors and Easter colors packaged in sunny yellow egg-shaped boxes.
MarieBelle
484 Broome St., btwn Wooster St & Broadway
212.925.6999
www.mariebelle.com
If you really want to impress your friends and family this Easter, you’ll want to stop into Marie Belle in Soho. Famous for their one-of-a-kind colorful designs, this Parisian chocolate and cocoa bar hand paints many of their exotically flavored chocolates. What looks like a simple milk chocolate egg is filled with six mini eggs inside. There’s also a miniature, edible bird’s nest with six, luscious milk, dark, and white mini chocolate eggs nestled inside. And everything comes in their signature blue box, decorated with ribbons and charms.
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