I remember doing Easter egg hunts back when I was in elementary school.

It wasn’t very often that my parents would prepare activities to celebrate holidays, so I looked forward to any they did. Some years, Papa Leung would set up an Easter egg hunt in our basement and then invite all the kids from church to come and collect them all. The scavenger hunts never lasted very long, as there are only so many places to conceal shiny foil eggs in my basement. Nevertheless, the searching part was always my favourite, not the eating part. (Surprise!) Am I the only one that thinks those supermarket chocolate eggs are tasteless? Blech.

Whiling rattling my brain for Easter recipe ideas, I was reminded of Cadbury’s pastel chocolate eggs. Although they sure look pretty (I’m a sucker for anything pastel coloured), these preservative-laden candies will do no good for your body. Sugar as the first ingredient on the list can never be good. Today I will be sharing a recipe for homemade Easter egg candies, ones that are raw vegan and free from preservatives, artificial dyes and refined sweeteners. So you can treat yourself and your children with no fear and guilt!

After several attempts at trying to create a mold-able white paste for the base, I succeeded with one made from homemade coconut butter. It’s shredded coconut taken to the next level; simply done by whirling it in a food processor for ten-ish minutes. Coconut butter has similar properties to coconut oil, in that it will harden and hold its shape when chilled. Which is exactly what we want for our candies! Despite making up most of the candy, the coconut flavour is actually rather faint. Add more agave or some stevia to increase the sweetness and to add more flavour.

To imitate the festive colours of Mini Eggs, I turned to our friends from the fruit and veggie department. Dying the “eggs” is the most exciting part of this recipe!

For the gorgeous shade of magenta pink, I mixed a small amount of beet juice into one portion of the coconut butter paste. All that is needed to make the juice is a grater and a thin cloth of some sort. No juicing machine in sight. Begin by shredding a small thumb of beet onto the cloth, and then press the juice through the cloth by squeezing with your hands. Viola, raw beet juice! To avoid staining, immediately immerse the cloth in water and wash any utensils that were used to deal with the beet. That being said, a reminder to refrain from wearing your best clothes when working with beets. We love the colour in our candies, not our clothes!

The yellowy-orange colour was achieved in a similar way, using the raw juicing method with carrots. Carrot juice is not very pigmented, so I added the dried pulp in as well. It helps to soak up all that excess moisture and also gives the candy a bit of a speckled look.

Finally, the purple colour was created with a combination of mashed whole blueberries and a little bit of beet juice. I originally just added 6 blueberries (previously frozen) to the coconut butter paste, but it yielded an unappetizing shade of grey. A splash of leftover beet juice livened up the colour, producing a delicate pale purple. While you could puree the blueberries for a more uniform colour, I quite like how the berry skins give the candies a “quail egg” appearance.

My rendition of Cadbury’s Mini Eggs does not involve chocolate, but Chew brought up that it can easily be incorporated by coating the chilled candies in chocolate ganache. We have a recipe for that on our Deep Dish Pecan Pie post.

These Raw Vegan “Mini Eggs” are incredibly simple to make (super kid-friendly) and would be a perfect addition to your Easter celebrations. So grab thy trusty food processor and prepare to get your hands dirty!

Use these mini eggs to fill my Vegan Coconut Macaroon Nests for an absolutely adorable Easter treat! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to receive first notice about new posts. Keep an eye out as the recipe for Vegan Macaroon Nests will be up next!