Home Made Chocolate, Lemon and Passion fruit Creme Eggs

I haven't had a Cadbury's Creme Egg yet this year.  This is quite an achievement for me.  I'm not sure why - it has not been a conscious choice, I just haven't gotten around to one!

I thought I would give my own a go.  The lemon cheesecake filling is light and airy, the passion fruit yolk is sharp and cuts through the creamy white.

This is another recipe that I had seen on Pinterest originally made by Steph at Raspberri Cupcake and then I also saw it crop up on The Londoner's blog.  I had been intrigued by the idea for a while and it's not that difficult a recipe to make - it is just a bit trickier for them to look good.  As you can see from mine, they look a bit more scrambled than Rosie and Steph's do, but it is the taste that counts!

Ingredients:

6-8 hollow chocolate eggs (I got mine from Morrisons in an Easter Egg hunt bag)
30g icing sugar
1 lemon (juice)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used Madagascan)
150ml whipping cream
2 Passion fruits
1 tsp apricot jam
1 tsp butter

Method

Using a serrated knife, cut the tops off your eggs.  I discovered that the closer you can get to the top of the egg, the better for filling later.  Keep the tops if you want to re-seal the eggs later - try and keep them next to the egg so you don't get mixed up!

In a bowl, combine the lemon juice, cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla

In a seperate bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks

Gently fold the whipped cream into the cheesecake mix until combined.

Fill your eggs with a spoon.  This gets messy.  Try and get the top as level as possible.

Pop the eggs in the fridge and make your yolk.

Sieve the passion fruit into a saucepan.  Using a pestle on the pulp gets a lot more juice out and breaks down some of the pips.   Add the apricot jam and butter and heat to a sticky sauce.

Using something small and thin (I used a skewer) make a small hole in each egg and spoon your yolk in.  It may be worth letting it cool slightly first - I used it hot and it melted some of the cream cheese filling!  You may need to use some of the cream cheese filling to seal any gaps that cause the yolk to overflow.

This is the point where I wished I had thought ahead.  I realised I had no egg cups or shot glasses to rest the eggs in while they set in the fridge.  Luckily I had an egg box so that would have to do!

Pop your tops back on if you want; use some of the cheesecake filling to grout the lids back on.

Stick them in the fridge to set - they need at least 15 minutes.

Eat like a cream egg.  This is personal choice.  As they say, how do you eat yours?