Is anyone doing anything special for Easter dinner? I'm thinking of doing a leg of lamb with all the roast trimmings but not sure yet.. Stuck on ideas for pudding though. I also want to do some baking..maybe some little Easter cupcakes or something but I need inspiration!

So what are your Easter dinner plans?

No idea but it won't be fancy as we didn't manage our lent fasting very well.

Something vegetarian maybe a nut roast.

We are having slow-roast shoulder of lamb, dauphinoise potatoes, and mixed green veg, followed by lemon meringue pie.

I am hoping there will be enough lamb left over to make a shepherds pie on Monday

I'm doing roast leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary, dauphinoise potatoes, peas and green beans.

Never cooked lamb or dauphinoise potatoes before so fingers crossed all goes well!

Having hot chocolate fudge cake and double cream for pudding.

Hi fizzle!

You’re meal sounds lovely!! If you want to do some baking, Cheesecake topped with fruit is always nice. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting is absolutely delicious.

If you want to top off your meal with something a bit more showstopper fancy, maybe try a double layer cake with icing between the layers and have it look like an Easter basket filled with sweets, chocolate eggs, or decorated to have butterflies etc. There are a lot of decorations that you can buy in the stores now. If you like to do piping, there is a piping nozzle that makes icing look like grass and another that makes a basket weave. If you don’t have the nozzles or the time there are a few other faster options you could try:

For the grass effect –
1) Use a disposable icing bag with green icing, but instead of cutting the tip off the end, poke a few holes in the tip of the bag with a skewer, needle or pin and you will get a similar result. I would suggest icing the cake lightly first so the cake won’t show through if you miss some spots.
2) Again, ice the cake first then use flaked coconut coloured with green food colouring.
3) With short flicks, rake the icing with a fork or a brand new clean comb whilst it is still soft to get the effect of grass.

For the basket effect -
1) Use a fork to make cris-cross patterns of a basket into the icing.
2) Use Kit-Kat bars or Mikado chocolate biscuits sticking to the icing around the cake to make like a fence.

If you google Easter basket cake there are some inspiring ideas. It would take a lot more time, but you could make little individual Easter baskets using cupcakes. If you have kids, it could be fun for them too.

Wow thanks, that all sounds great.

And re the bib - I don't have kids, I don't need kids to make silly little Easter treats because i'm the biggest kid of them all! I have decided on some little chocolatey cupcake type things with some Easter baskets. Thank you for the great ideas!

Just another Sunday to me so it will probably be leftovers from Saturday then off down to the pub.

i'll probably do a roast chicken, hubby doesn't like lamb and its just us and a baby so no point doing a bigger dinner

Decided to do my leg of lamb with garlic, rosemary and olive oil. Thinking of slow roasting it so it's tender and falls off the bone - what's the best way of cooking it? Temperature, how long to slow cook for etc?

Fizzle, I have to say lamb is one of my favourite roasts!!!

I slow cook my leg of lamb the same way I do for my lamb shanks in the recipe below, only for a whole leg of lamb, approximately 2kg, I leave it the oven for 3 1/2 to 4 hours instead of the time in this recipe. It makes the most incredibly delicious gravy ever! You could stud yours with garlic and rosemary as you planned and even toss a couple peeled potatoes in the pan as well if you like. Depending on the size of your pan or how tight your lid is, you may want to keep check on the juices halfway through cooking time, but don’t keep opening the oven or you will lose heat in the oven and it will throw off your cooking time.

Note: I sometimes use only 1/2 bottle of wine, depending how much I have on hand and just add another cup of stock or water in place. Also, as a leg of lamb is obviously larger than shanks you will probably use a typical roasting pan, which is longer instead of deeper, so you may need to add a bit more liquid. I would say at least 1/3 up the side of pan with the lamb already bedded in.

4 (1 1/2 lb) lamb shanks
2 - 3 large carrots, chopped in halves or thirds
1 - 2 onions, sliced
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs rosemary
750 ml full-bodied red wine
2 cups lamb or beef stock
1 tablespoon soft brown sugar
1 -2 teaspoon cornflour (cornstarch)
Olive oil, for cooking
Salt & Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 170C/325 F degrees.
2. Season the lamb with salt and pepper.
3. In a large frying pan brown the lamb shanks on all sides in the olive oil; remove from pan and put into a large casserole dish to keep warm.
4. In the same frying pan put in the carrots, onions, garlic, bay leaves and rosemary and cook slowly until nicely coloured.
5. Pour in the red wine, beef stock, and brown sugar into the frying pan and stir gently bringing it to a low boil.
6. Pour the wine mixture over the lamb.
7. Cover tightly with lid or foil; put in oven and cook for 2 1/2 – 3 hours until very tender. (FOR LAMB LEG – 3 1/2 to 4 HOURS)
8. Remove the lamb to rest, cover and keep warm.
9. Pour the red wine juices into a saucepan. Skim as much fat as you can from the juices and bring to the boil. Meanwhile mix together the cornflour with just a bit of cold water and whisk the cornflour mixture into the red wine juices until desired consistency.

Jamie Olivers Slow Roasted Lamb is good can be done with leg as well as shoulder:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/l...veg-and-greens

Probably end up doing a nut roast with all the trimmings.

Sunday chicken thigh roast dinner with all the trimmings.. can't wait | ( well it goes two ways as i just have smaller portions, but like to do a lot haha )

I've just marinated my leg of lamb in olive oil, sea salt & pepper and stuffed with garlic & rosemary.... It's made my kitchen smell amazing. Can't wait to eat it tomorrow! Going to slow roast it for about 6 hours

We had a lovely bit of topside. It's not often we have beef for a roast dinner but this bit of beef was gorgeous.

Leg of lamb too.
Browned it all over.
Pushed garlic and rosemary into slits in the surface and roasted at 120 for 7 hours.
(Turned it a few times).
3 sliced onions in the baking tray with rough chopped carrots, 300ml white wine, 300ml of stock and some dried juniper berries.
After it's cooked drain the liquid and veg, blitz it intensely, push the liquid through a sieve and dilute the contents with hot water to a consistency of your liking.
Incredible gravy.
My adult kids nicked the remaining lamb, dauphinoise and gravy in plastic containers!