Entertaining
Tips for hosting a fabulous Easter brunch
Image: Sian Richards | Maya Visnyei | Jeff Coulson | Maya Visnyei
Entertaining
Tips for hosting a fabulous Easter brunch
Ensure your Easter feast is your most stunning, fun and delicious one yet with these must-know hostessing tips.
Planning for any holiday meal can be stressful—there’s lots of details to coordinate, dishes to cook, relatives to wow and kids to entertain. To help you plan the perfect brunch, we’ve rounded up our best tips that'll help your fete be unforgettable.
Image: Angus Fergusson
1. Set the table early.
Setting the table is one of those chores that can take up a surprising amount of time, especially if you’re pressed for time in the morning. For brunch, consider setting your table the night before (or for dinner, a day in advance), including your flowers, which will stay fresh-looking so long as they have plenty of water to drink. If you’re serving buffet-style, arrange your serving dishes on the buffet table the night before to ensure there’s room for everything, and set out all the necessary serving utensils so you don’t have to hunt for salad servers at the last minute.
Image: Sian Richards
2. Opt for make-ahead meals.
Time is rarely on the side of the holiday cook, which feels particularly true when your meal takes place in the morning. To avoid getting up at the crack of dawn, choose recipes that can be prepared partially or fully in advance. Then pop them into the oven for the final bake, or for reheating. Here are some terrific make-ahead brunch ideas to get you going:
Image: Yvonne Duivenvoorden
The dough and filling for the classic morning buns can be fully assembled and sliced the night before. They rise while you’re preheating the oven, and then bake up in half an hour—all while you get to enjoy your coffee.
Corn and Feta Tart With Fresh Tarragon
Image: Jeff Coulson
Quiches and savoury tarts can be a lot of work to make the day-of, but thankfully, they can easily be prepared in advance too! Bake your crust the night before and store it in a sealed container (or plastic wrap) at room temperature. Mix together your filling, storing it in a separate container in the fridge. The next morning, simply pour the filling into the crust, and pop your tart in the oven for a final bake
Image: Ryan Brooke/TC Media
This luscious treat is a cross between traditional French toast and a bread pudding. It’s actually better when prepared the night before and allowed to rest, as the bread has more time to absorb the filling for fluffiest, softest results.
Image: Ryan Brook
It’s never a bad idea to add a vegetable component to your Easter meal, to provide a counterpoint to the richness of the other dishes. Traditional salads are great, but tricky to prepare in advance; instead, try this bean and rapini salad, all of which can be prepared the night before without worrying about anything going wilty the morning of your meal.
Image: Ronald Tsang
Classic roasted ham can take hours to cook in the oven, so to cut down on time (but without compromising on flavour), we love to use a brined, pre-cooked ham to give us a head start. It gets a honey glaze the night before, then cooks up comparatively quickly in the oven.
3. Create a craft area.
Image: Jodi Pudge
Kids have a lot of energy in the daytime, so it’s great to have a craft area to keep them engaged and occupied. Try setting up a low table (such as a coffee table) out of the way of foot traffic, lining both the table and the floor beneath it with waterproof material to guard against spills. It also helps to have some old T-shirts or sweatshirts on hand to act as makeshift smocks. For Easter-related crafts, set them up with an egg-decorating station and get them to make these adorable strawberry eggs, or get them crafting paper Easter eggs.
4. Have a drinks station.
Image: Maya Visnyei
Brunch can be a tricky time of day, as people are as inclined to want a mimosa (or our spin on the mimosa, the Elderflower Fizz) as they are tea or coffee. Avoid unnecessary trips back and forth to the kitchen by setting up a separate drinks station that allows your guests to help themselves. Use labels to clearly delineate the coffee, tea, and dairy options, and to alert guests if a pre-mixed drink is a cocktail or a mocktail.
5. Finish with a stunner.
Nothing rounds out the perfect Easter meal quite like a show-stopping dessert. As with the main course, it’s much easier to pull this off with something you’ve been able to prepare in advance. Just make sure to allow plenty of time (ideally a couple of hours) for your dessert to come to room temperature, and this sweet course will seem effortless.
Image: Jodi Pudge
The best thing about this cake is how easily the steps can be broken down for preparing it in advance. The night before, layer your crepes with the filling, and cover in plastic wrap before refrigerating overnight. Save dusting with icing sugar until just before serving to prevent the sugar from dissolving.
Image: Jeff Coulson
This cake might seem intimidating at first glance, but it’s a longtime reader favourite! Prepare your cake layers up to a week in advance and freeze them until needed. Ice the cake the night before, reserving the candy. Refrigerate until the frosting is hardened slightly before covering in cling wrap and refrigerating overnight. Bring to room temperature the following morning and top with candy just before serving.
Image: Angus Fergusson
This layered recipe looks every bit the part of an elaborate trifle, but is easy to pull together if you’ve made the components in advance. Bake and freeze the biscuits up to a week beforehand, and make the sauce the night before. The morning of, simply layer the biscuits and sauce with freshly-whipped cream and store-bought meringues (a favourite cheat of ours) for a creamy, decadent treat that could be its own centrepiece.
Image: Maya Visnyei
For an elegant twist on Easter egg nests, try our chocolate pavlova cake. It features a marshmallow-like filling, and is topped with mascarpone cheese, chocolate shavings and candy-coated chocolate eggs.
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