Easter Enid Blyton Books

[Anita Bensoussane]

Chocolate Easter eggs appear in some of the short stories too. 'The Magic Easter Egg' (from The Teacher's Treasury, 1926) begins with a mouth-watering description of Mother Bootle's exciting-sounding chocolate shop in Fairyland:

It had great big bottles full of sweets of all colours, wonderful boxes of chocolates, and candy wrapped up in gay paper.

But it was at Easter-time that the shop was gayest of all, for then Mother Bootle had so many Easter Eggs she didn't know what to do.

And such GLORIOUS ones they were! Chocolate ones, marzipan ones, little ones, and great big ones. She even had magic eggs that broke themselves in half when you said "Open Egg!" and showed you a surprise inside - perhaps a toy or a brooch. You can guess how all the fairies loved her shop.

Marzipan eggs are mentioned in both the short story and The Mystery of the Missing Man but I've never had one, and I wouldn't be able to now as I've developed an allergy to almonds. Has anyone else ever had a marzipan Easter egg?

Incidentally, there's a different story in The Green Story Book which also has the title 'The Magic Easter Egg'. Pop-up the brownie sees Dame Shoo-shoo making "a marvellous Easter egg" which is "bigger than Pop-up himself". Being a chocolate-lover, he can't resist having a nibble - but there's a price to pay as he soon finds out!

[Hannah]

My mother always gave me Easter eggs with marzipan as I love marzipan.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've never actually seen a marzipan Easter egg. Before I became allergic to almonds, I used to love the little bars of marzipan coated in dark chocolate.

[Hannah]

Easter eggs with marzipan are usually the same as the bar you mentioned, just with another shape.

[Anita Bensoussane]

They sound good!

[GloomyGraham]

I love marzipan with dark chocolate coating but since Easter Eggs are far more expensive than bars, I'll stick to my Aldi marzipan bars.

I never got one as a child but do remember a few 'sugar eggs' in my youngest years.

I know around WWII there was no manufacturing of Easter Eggs in Australia for about 7 years. It wasn't a shortage of ingredients - it was the shortage of labour. All forms of eggs were generally hand-wrapped (and sometimes decorated) by women in factories and the war saw many of them diverted to more important manufacturing. When Easter Eggs did come back, there were lots of complaints about high prices too.

I imagine with sweet rationing and shortages of ingredients in Britain for many years after the war, Easter Eggs of all kinds would have been in short supply there too for quite some time.

[GloomyGraham]

On another note, Hot Cross Buns are a traditional part of Easter and have been around longer than Easter confectionery.

Can't remember any mentions of these in an Enid book.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I don't recall any mentions of hot cross buns either, Graham. It anyone knows of any, please share them (the mentions and the buns! )

Enid Blyton's daughter Gillian had an interesting Easter egg in 1933, when she would have been about 21 months old. It was a cardboard one with a woolly clockwork lamb inside. She had chocolate too, as Bobs the dog gave her a toy chick with a chocolate egg tied to it. Bobs and the cats (Bimbo and Pat) received chocolate eggs as well. Hopefully, they only had a little bit at a time because the theobromine in chocolate can poison dogs and cats, as we've discussed before.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1052

As you say, Graham, things were different in wartime and there were no chocolate treats at Easter in 1942. Enid Blyton reused some old cardboard eggs and the three children (Gillian, Imogen and Kenneth the cook's son) received one each with a small toy inside.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1880

[Bertie]

I can only think of a few references to buns in general, and currant buns, in FFO - but not specifically Hot Cross Buns (or Hot Tick Buns either!)

As regards marzipan, yes I love the chocolate bars of it and have always thought a marzipan egg sounds wonderful but have never actually seen one.