The Ultimate Guide To Easter Entertaining

Spring has sprung, the sun is shining, and Easter weekend is fast approaching. The preparation for our favorite chocolate-filled holiday starts now. Easter is the perfect time to gather friends and family for special, spring-inspired meals, and lots of egg-orientated Easter fun. From planning Easter egg hunts, to cooking Easter brunch, to decorating the dining table, this guide will help you get on top of all your entertaining needs for the upcoming holiday weekend so that you can be sure that nothing will be forgotten.

Add a little bit of fun to your Easter table with these homemade curious bunny place cards. Spend some time as a family on the Saturday of Easter weekend making these cute place cards. They're really easy to put together, and will add such a fun, personal touch to your Easter dining table.

​To make the Curious Bunny Place Cards, follow these instructions.

Decorating Easter eggs has got to be one of the best Easter traditions. Once the stressful business of blowing out the contents of the eggs is done, let your creative mind run free: Whether you choose to use glitter, metallic pens, ribbons, paints, or sophisticated dyes, your beautiful Easter eggs will look so perfect hanging from your Easter tree. An afternoon spent decorating these eggs a few days before the weekend is sure to get the whole family in a festive Easter mood.

​For ways to decorate Easter eggs, click here.

Whatever you do, don't forget the Easter candy baskets. You won't have very happy children if their sugar-laden basket is forgotten this Easter. While the baskets don't have to be huge, make sure they're filled with the kids' favorite treats: Easter is not a time to try to strictly control their sugar consumption. If you do want to make sure they're not eating complete junk, try filling the baskets with dark chocolate eggs and bunnies, and a few of our favorite homemade Easter peeps.

Christmas shouldn't be the only holiday that is celebrated with a tree. Decorating your home with an Easter tree is a beautiful way to celebrate the holiday inside your home. For the simplest tree, find some simple bare branches, or even buy some from the local florist, and adorn with hanging chocolate and hand-decorated Easter eggs.

Why would we want to decorate the table with anything that wasn't edible? Apart from bunches of fresh flowers dotted around our dining room, these edible Easter centerpieces are literally the sweetest way to decorate our Easter table. They're lots of fun to make with the kids the day before the big dinner, and everyone will love diving into them when dinner is finished.

​For the best Edible Easter Centerpieces ideas, click here.

Add some springtime color to your home by filling those empty vases with bright flowers. Bunches of daffodils, tulips, and daisies will add a stunning array of yellow, pink, and white to your home. Just a few bunches of fresh flowers dotted around will make your guests think you've spent days preparing for the Easter celebrations.

There's no better way to begin Good Friday than in the traditional way: with a freshly toasted hot cross bun, slathered with plenty of salty butter, and, for those of you with a sweet tooth, drizzled with honey.

​For the Hot Cross Buns recipe, click here.

Traditionally on Good Friday, you're not allowed to eat meat. This has meant that a typical Good Friday dinner is fish-focused. Start the evening with some beautiful fresh seafood, perhaps followed by a classic spaghetti vongole. If you're looking for a show-stopping dish, try roasting a whole fish and serving it with a simple potato salad and bright greens.

​For the Classic Spaghetti Vongole recipe, click here.

Easter is the best time to spend a couple of hours in the kitchen baking with the kids. No other holiday is quite as chocolate-oriented as Easter, so it's best to embrace the inevitable sugar overload and make the most of it. Simple chocolate cornflake Easter nests are such an easy baking project if you have young kids who love spending time with their aprons on, helping you make their favorite sweet treats.

​For the Chocolate Cornflake Easter Nests recipe, click here.

Kids and adults alike will think you're a genius when you serve up this Easter rabbit cake when the mid-afternoon, post-Easter egg hunt hunger strikes. You don't need to invest in a fancy cake pan for this recipe. Simply bake two round cakes, and use the first one for the bunny's face, and the other one to cut into ears and a rather fancy bunny bow tie.

​For the Easter Bunny Cake recipe, click here.

Celebrations need cake, and every Easter cake should include Easter candy. Get crafty in the kitchen, and bake these adorable cupcakes. Your guests will be desperate to try one when they see the cute little Peeps on top, before they even know that the cupcakes are filled with hidden mini Easter candies.

​For the Peeps Chick Surprise-Inside Cupcakes, click here.

Easter breakfast should definitely not be a dismal bowl of Cheerios. Start the springtime celebrations right with this deceptively dish of simple asparagus soldiers with soft-boiled egg hollandaise. Swap the asparagus for toast soldiers for the little ones, and you've got an easy, indulgent Easter breakfast that is perfect for the whole family.

​For the Asparagus Soldiers With Soft-Boiled Egg Hollandaise recipe, click here.

So much effort has gone into cooking Easter Sunday's dinner that your feast deserves to be served on an elegantly decorated table. Easter tends to mark the beginning of spring, so it's definitely time to add some pops of color to your room. Bright linens and colored water glasses immediately elevate the table décor, bringing a splash of sunshine into your home. Sprinkle fluffy Easter chicks, foil-wrapped chocolate eggs, and mini Easter bunnies across the table too for an adorable Easter dining scene.

Start your day off with a sweet stack of pancakes. Fluffy pancakes, dotted with bubbles of blueberries, and doused in maple syrup are the most decadent way to brunch on Easter weekend.

​For the Easy Blueberry Pancakes recipe, click here.

If you've got a hectic Easter morning on your hands, with kids begging to start the Easter egg hunt in the next two minutes, as they rapidly eat their way through their Easter baskets, while you try to get your head around how to roast that rack of lamb for lunch, this recipe is your savior. These extravagant scrambled eggs require almost no attention, and hardly any time, but yield rich, creamy results.

​For the Extravagant Goat Cheese Caper Scramble recipe, click here.

This salad celebrates the arrival of the season's fresh spring peas. These are a favorite little vegetable to snack on throughout spring, and their delicate flavor is really highlighted in this simple side dish. Enjoy this salad served alongside your roast Easter lamb, or piled on some lightly buttered toast for a light lunch.

​For the Fresh Spring Peas With Butter Lettuce and Dill recipe, click here.

End your Easter feast in the traditional Italian way with this classic sweet ricotta pie. Typically enjoyed at the end of Easter Sunday, we also love the Italian habit of enjoying the leftovers for breakfast on Monday morning.

​For the Italian Sweet Ricotta Pie recipe, click here.

Your Easter dinner guests will be so impressed with this simple upgrade to the mandatory potato side dish. Toss the potatoes in a fragrant, garlicy, spring onion pesto, and serve alongside the roast ham or lamb.

​For the New Potato Salad With Spring Onions recipe, click here.

The dream Easter ham is salty, sweet, and slightly spicy. That may sound like far too much to ask of a home-cooked, home-glazed ham, but it's really not. This step-by-step guide will talk you through the whole process of making an incredibly impressive Easter ham without encountering any disasters along the way.

​For the Perfect Easter Ham recipe, click here.

Everyone needs a failsafe roast lamb recipe to turn to on Easter weekend. Getting the centerpiece of the meal wrong is too risky. This trustworthy recipe for pistachio-coated rack of lamb looks so vibrant when it comes out of the oven thanks to the golden-green crust.

For the Pistachio-Crusted Rack of Lamb recipe, click here.

You'll be sick of chocolate by the time it comes to dessert on Easter Sunday, but that's no reason to not serve anything sweet. Our favorite fruity holiday dessert is definitely trifle: It looks so beautiful on your Easter table, and will more than satisfy your sweet tooth.

For the Rhubarb and Berry Trifle recipe, click here.

With the arrival of Easter comes the start of asparagus season. We are always so eager to eat as much of our favorite green stems as we can. Easter dinner should be accompanied by these delicate stems: Serve them simply, sautéed gently in a light lemon butter sauce.

For the Sautéed Asparagus With Lemon Butter Sauce recipe, click here.

Easter weekend is a good excuse for a really indulgent meal. These creamy, truffled grits are the perfect rich accompaniment to your glazed ham. Yes, this recipe does require you to add even more ham into your meal than was already there, but we're not going to turn that down on Easter Sunday.

​For the Truffled Grits With Ham recipe, click here.

We love to turn our Easter brunch into an extremely decadent meal with this fancy and creamy White Rabbit Ice Cream Cocktail. While the kids devour their Easter candy, you can indulge in a grown-up twist on the children's favorite ice cream milkshake with this sweet, spiked, Easter drink.

For the White Rabbit Ice Cream Cocktail recipe, click here.