Overview
It's Easter; the time to stuff yourself silly with animal-shaped chocolates and cross-covered pastries while feeling absolutely zero shame. To help you make the most of it, here are the best holiday treats making up your Easter hunt this year — from hot cross bun cocktails to indulgent ice cream and handcrafted chocolate eggs from one of the city's best pâtisseries.
HOT CROSS BUNS FROM DAILY BREAD
You'll be hard-pressed to find a month of the year where gluten-loving Aucklanders aren't lining up outside any of Daily Bread's central Auckland locations, ready to stock up on sourdough or ham and cheese croissants. But for about two months each year, things really go haywire when the bakery team start pumping out their mouthwatering hot cross buns. Heavy on spice, sweet with dried fruit and finished with a sticky glaze, a signature madre lievito sourdough starter and long fermentation process makes them some of the best in the game. If they sell out, the locally made Loaf kumara sourdough buns also absolutely hold their own as a fairly decent dupe.
Find them at Daily Bread's Ponsonby, Point Chev or Federal Street stores, retailing at $20 for a pack of six.
HOT CROSS BUN VODKA FROM THE NATIONAL DISTILLERY COMPANY
Sure, Jesus turned water into wine, but the National Distillery Company have turned hot cross buns into vodka — just as Jesus would have wanted (we expect). A limited-edition release from National Distillery Company who are known for their often slightly kooky blends, this Easter spiced vodka with subtle vanilla notes is the perfect drink for this holiday season and will make the perfect Easter Espresso Martini to be enjoyed over the long weekend.
Available to buy online from the NDC's website for $75 a bottle
HOT CROSS BUN EASTER GELATO FROM LITTLE LATO
Little Lato is a pint-sized gelateria serving up authentic Italian gelato and dreamy desserts. Founder Hannah Wood is well-versed in the creation of ice-cool treats; before bringing the concept to Auckland she received a scholarship to study at the Carpigiani Gelato University in Italy. This year the team is serving up a spiced hot cross bun gelato infused with spices, orange zest, raisins and buttery hot cross bun, whipped up by the bakers at The Dusty Apron. If you're a gelato fan, we've got great news — Wood has promised an ANZAC cookie gelato will also be coming later in April.
Get a scoop from any of Little Lato's various Auckland locations.
THE HOT CROSS BUNNY COCKTAIL AT BLACK PINEAPPLE
There are a lot of 'hot cross' things happening around the city, and Black Pineapple's latest experimental release is the traditional sweet and spicy bun in liquid form. The 'Hot Cross Bunny' is a twist on a classic '20th Century' cocktail using gin, PX sherry and white chocolate liqueur. It's all tied together with a dark chocolate bunny garnish from Devonport Chocolates. The 'Hot Cross Bunny' cocktail kits are available in three variations — and you can nab yourself a cocktail-shaking kit in the process.
Pre-order now on Black Pineapple's website.
'THE EGG' AT PARK HYATT AUCKLAND
The Park Hyatt's executive pastry chef Callum Liddicoat and his team are known for their sweet treats, meaning Easter is the holiday to spend in the hotel's elegant Pantry space. This year they've created a dessert of dreams, designed to share — or sure, enjoy solo if you can hack it. This take on the classic crème egg has a centre of salted mango caramel and a lightly whipped caramel Chantilly, which has then been covered in a 55 percent Valrhona Itakuja chocolate, before being sprayed with colourful chocolate flicks.
Available from The Pantry at the Park Hyatt, The Egg is $25 and serves two.
COOKIE SMASH HOT CROSS BUNS FROM COUNTDOWN
If you prefer your Easter treats non-traditional, may we recommend these hideously heathen offerings from Cookie Time and Countdown? This Kiwi spin on a classic is bound to tempt even the most ardent of fruity hot cross bun haters, stuffed with chocolate chunks and pieces of the iconic Cookie Time cookies you'll remember from the morning cafeteria trips of school days. The cross on top is cocoa and to make it even better, a mini Cookie Time chocolate chip cookie is nestled into the top of each bun. Are these elegant or traditional? Absolutely not. Are they delicious? You betcha.
Each pack is $8 and can be found at Countdown supermarkets.
BUNNY BUNS EASTER COCKTAIL AT CORDIS
Prefer your sweet treats with a side of liquor? Head into the Cordis' unashamedly Aotearoa-themed Our Land Is Alive bar to celebrate Easter with a delicious 'Bunny Buns' cocktail, available over Easter weekend only. This sweet treat combines black collar vodka, vanilla syrup, in-house spiced syrup, almond milk, almond liquor and hazelnut liquor – it's creamy and boozy, and basically what the Easter bunny would drink after dark. If you're keen to do an Easter cocktail tour of Auckland (who isn't?) then follow it up with a trip to Elmos in Ponsonby for their Miso Honi Martini ($21) which is Easter in a glass thanks to its mix of vodka, miso, Whittaker's white chocolate, Frangelico and white creme de cacao.
The Bunny Buns cocktail will be available from April 15 until April 17, for $16 each.
HOT CROSS BUN ICE CREAM AT DUCK ISLAND
Duck Island is known for their speciality seasonal flavours and this Easter is no different. They've teamed up with another Auckland cult fave and launched a hot cross bun ice cream crafted with Ima's cult-status buns. With the bready goodness infused into their dairy base along with spices and orange zest, that's then churned into another eggy custard ice cream (as a nod to the crème pat cross) and, once churned, the two ice creams are folded together with a healthy sprinkle of sugar syrup, plumped currants and citrus peel. Yes, please, thank you.
Available until Easter Monday, grab a scoop at either of Duck Island's Pononsby or Newmarket locations.
COFFEE SPIKED EASTER EGGS FROM FARRO
Of course, chocolate eggs are an acceptable breakfast food over Easter — and the month preceding it, in our humble opinion — but you can make it even more of a breakfast experience now that coffee roasters Allpress have teamed up with local chocolate house, Bennetts of Mangawhai, to re-release their famous coffee-spiked chocolate eggs.
These eggs are spiked with fresh, roasted Allpress coffee and hand-poured in Mangawhai, New Zealand. Each carton contains three Flat White eggs and three espresso eggs, which are then packaged up in a recyclable egg carton.
Find them at Farro from March 16, for $18 a box.
Top images: Daily Bread, the Cordis