How to crack Easter on a budget
You don’t need to fork out loads to make your Easter weekend egg-ceptional (ahem). There are plenty of ways to save money on food and gifts. With food prices climbing and energy bills higher, unless the Easter bunny pulls a blinder, lots of us will be looking for ways to make Easter more affordable. From a wallet-friendly Easter Sunday meal to affordable edible gifts that’ll trump those chocolate eggs, we have plenty of ideas. The Easter feast If Easter Sunday calls for a classic roast in your house, there are a few ways you can stick to tradition without having to blow your budget. Lamb is the most popular option for this special Sunday lunch, but it can be pricey. Go for an affordable shoulder or breast joint. Just remember to cook them low and slow for seriously tender, fall-apart texture. You can save on energy by using a slow cooker. Get your lamb shoulder boned and rolled (or do it yourself), rub it in garlic and rosemary and sit it in the pot on a bed of onions and carrots. Let it cook for a good 5-6 hours (or even overnight on low) and you’ll have a delicious dinner complete with amazing gravy. By making leftovers count, you could bring the cost per portion down further, too. For instance, lamb pilau puts leftovers to great use with rice and store cupboard spices. Of course, you can opt for an equally lovely roast chicken or pork to save even further. For a vegetarian centrepiece, classic Italian Easter pie torta pasquale is a great way to go. Using shop-bought puff pastry and fresh or frozen spinach, ours feeds six and makes a great lunchbox filler if there are leftovers. Or, with leeks at their most plentiful right now, put them to work in a great spring tart along with filo and cheddar – it only needs six ingredients which come to less than a fiver in total. The rising cost of meat, eggs and dairy means Easter lunches are even harder to make on a budget, but there are vegan options which might fit the bill. A simple potato and mushroom pie with ready-made shortcrust pastry is easy and flexible to your tastes. Make the most of vibrant vegetables like budget-friendly carrots and in-season spring greens for the trimmings. Freezer-aisle veg is also a real winner – it’s often cheaper than fresh and saves on waste. Frozen broccoli makes a greener take on cauliflower cheese. Cheep, cheep bakes Sweets are undeniably the star of Easter, but with prices of chocolate creeping up it pays to be clever about what you make. Lemony desserts are a fresher alternative to chocolate eggs. A packet of pre-made meringue nests makes great mini-pavlovas; dollop cream or crème fraiche on top along with a drizzle of lemon curd and you have an effortless, wallet-friendly pud. Alternatively, a cheesecake will always be popular. Inexpensive own-brand cream cheese (soft cheese) and biscuits are the key ingredients for a no-bake lemon cheesecake, which is pretty easy to make, too. If you want to do some holiday baking, a lemon drizzle is perfect for the spring festivities and uses just six ingredients, while a traybake is an affordable option to feed a crowd – think 40p a portion. To make it more festive, you can top it with any crumbled Easter chocolate or mini chocolate eggs you might have to hand. If the kids want to make cupcakes, Benjamina's reverse-creaming method uses a lot less butter than a traditional recipe. Using up reduced or stale hot cross buns in a chocolate hot cross bun pudding is another great bake for leftovers. If you can find a leftover chocolate egg to add, it’ll be cheaper still. Egg-ceptional gifts Cheap chocolate eggs aren’t tough to find in the shops in the lead up to Easter, but if you’re looking for something a bit more special, you can easily whip up some edible gifts for family visits. No child was ever sad to see a box of moreish chocolate cornflake cakes. And a box of fridge-cake can make an inexpensive bar of plain chocolate and a hodge-podge of store cupboard ingredients into a fancy treat. A box of silky fudge chock-full of chunky biscuits will go down a treat – and all you need to make it is a microwave, condensed milk, white chocolate and own-brand bourbon biscuits. Just don’t let on that it only took three ingredients and 10 minutes of hands-on time to make. Alternatively, for lovers of retro treats, make an old-school classic like coconut ice or peppermint creams. The ingredients lists for both are miraculously short and, aside from melting some chocolate, there’s no cooking or baking required. Chocolate truffles are also surprisingly easy to make – they’re essentially just a thick ganache mixture (chocolate, cream and a smidge of butter) but you can add in different flavourings depending on what you’ve got in. If you have nuts, crush them up and roll the truffles in them, or if there’s an orange in the fruit bowl, use the zest to add some zing. You could make a set of chocolates which look expensive