Easter is fast approaching and for the sweet tooths amongst us (me!), this is pleasing news indeed. After all, what other holiday is celebrated by stuffing your face with as much chocolate as humanly possible? Speaking of which, there are some seriously epic creations doing the rounds for Easter this year in Tāmaki Makaurau. Here are some of my favourites.
Creme Egg & Caramel Milk Hot Cross Bun Cookie Pies | Moustache
228 Orakei Road, Remuera, Auckland | 40 Cavendish Drive, Manukau City Centre, Auckland | Outside Sylvia Park Shopping Centre, 286 Mount Wellington Highway, Mount Wellington, Auckland | Online
Image credit: Moustache / Website
Moustache needs no introduction. Neither does its iconic Creme Egg Cookie Pie, which has hatched for the final time. Yes you read that right, it's your last chance to gorge on this OTT Easter treat (which, if you didn't know, is stuffed with an entire Cadbury Creme Egg and then topped with a white chocolate fried egg) before it makes way for something new and delicious in 2026. Only available as part of a larger cookie pie pack also featuring Caramel Milk Hot Cross Bun Cookie Pies (think spice-flavoured dough wrapped around a gooey caramel milk centre). Not a bad problem to have, by any means.
Hot Cross Bun Spiced Mousse | Onslow
9 Princes Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland
Image credit: Onslow / Instagram
Hot cross buns are getting the fine-dining treatment over at Onslow, where head pastry chef Zachariah Meads has crafted a dessert that will knock your Easter-print socks right off. He's taken the flavours of a traditional HCB and infused them them into a silky smooth mousse, studded with citrus and rum-soaked currants before coating it all in a thin layer of caramelised white choccy. Of course, this wouldn't be a hot cross bun without a cross, so he's piped one of those on top, too; and even thrown in a scoop of burnt butter ice cream for good measure. Zachariah, you're an actual angel.
Pistachio And Kataifi Easter Eggs | Colestown Chocolates
575 Remuera Road, Remuera, Auckland | Online
Image credit: Colestown Chocolates / InstagramIt was inevitable that someone would reimagine the biggest trending treat of 2025 as an Easter egg and that someone is Colestown Chocolates. This boutique Remuera chocolaterie is slinging milk and dark choccy shells piped full of gorgeous green pistachio cream and crunchy kataifi pastry, aka the building blocks of the viral Dubai chocolate bar and they're every bit as delicious as they sound. If you've yet to try this wildly popular treat, consider this a sign.
Check out Colestown Chocolates' full Easter range here.
Easter Gelato Selection | 'Little Lato
119 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby, Auckland
Image credit: Little 'Lato / Instagram
News of Little 'Lato's six (yes, six!) Easter-inspired gelatos has me bouncing off the walls like a literal bunny. Kicking off the celebrations are two hot cross bun-flavoured scoops—one in collaboration with Hamilton bakery Volare, and another vegan, gluten-free offering with the legends at Lucy's Gluten Free (Easter miracle much?). If HCB's ain't your thing, no problem, 'cos they've also got a vanilla cream egg number topped with caramel custard and shaved chocolate; a spicy carrot cake offering laced with cream cheese, candied walnuts and crumbled carrot cake; and another vanilla number loaded with smashed Easter bunnies. Rounding out the six-strong line-up is the cheekily named Easter Bunny Droppings (in reality, spiced chocolate sorbet garnished with choccy-coated raisins), which I imagine will be particularly popular with the younger set.
Hot Cross Bun Cookie Dough Chocolate Bar | House Of Chocolate
Online
Image credit: House of Chocolate / Website
What do you get when Easter's two most iconic treats—hot cross buns and chocolate—collide? The answer isn't chocolate hot cross buns (because been there, done that)—it's hot cross bun chocolate. Crafted by one of my all-time fave chocolatiers, House of Chocolate—hot on the back of some other incredible choccy bars, including a city-best take on the Dubai chocolate craze—this epic mash-up is Easter personified. Think 37% milk chocolate filled with buttery housemade cookie dough (oh, did I forget to mention there's some of that in there, too?!), sweet spices, dried fruit pieces, marmalade, and dark chocolate chunks. Not forgetting a flourish of toasted and crumbled hot cross buns, to keep things on theme. Divine.
Check out House Of Chocolate's full Easter range here.
Dippy Egg | Honest Chocolat
Inside Commercial Bay, 426 Lower Albert Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland
Image credit: Honest Chocolat / Instagram
I'm sure you're as eggcited as I am to learn that Honest Chocolat's famed Dippy Egg is back for another year (sorry, but it'd be criminal not to put that pun in here somewhere). This novelty take on the dipping egg and soldiers of old comprises a dark choccy Easter egg filled with chocolate mousse, hazelnut praline and crispy rice bubbles, paired with vanilla sponge soldiers and a cute passionfruit marshmallow fried egg. Would it be wrong to slam this for breakfast? Asking for a friend.
Check out Honest Chocolat's full Easter range here.
Venchi Strawberry And Cream Easter Egg | Sabato
57 Normanby Road, Mt Eden, Auckland | Online
Image credit: Sabato / Website
Okay, so I'm throwing the budget well and truly outta the window with this one, but Easter only comes around once a year so what's $48.50 in the grand scheme of things? And every bit of this pretty pink strawberry and cream masterpiece from renowned Italian chocolatier Venchi, available here in Auckland from Sabato, is worth it. Once you break through the stunning, Fabergé-like shell flecked with strawberry grains, you'll be treated to a second (surprise) Easter treat on the inside. I repeat: worth it.
Check out Sabato's full Easter range here.
Hot Cross Cookies | The Vegan Treatory
Inside Ponsonby Central, 136/146 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby, Auckland | Online
The Easter bunny has something super yummy up his sleeve this year—and it looks like The Vegan Treatory's Hot Cross Cookie. The Vegan Treatory makes some of the city's most mouthwatering cookies, and this limited release is no exception (and may, just quietly, test your loyalty to the traditional hot cross bun). Think soft hot cross bun-spiced dough baked into a gloriously thick cookie, loaded with sultanas and Belgian chocolate chips then decorated with a cream cheese-icing cross. Oh, and in case you hadn't put two and two together already—these cookies are also vegan.
Chocolate Easter Bunnies | La Petite Fourchette
G02/85 Daldy Street, Wynyard Quarter, Auckland
Image credit: La Petite Fourchette / Instagram
No one outdoes the French on the treat front, and La Petite Fourchette is here to prove exactly that with their spectacular take on the traditional chocolate Easter bunny. These sweet friends are available in three scrumptious flavours (milk, white, and dark chocolate), complete with a unique velvet-like finish that makes them look kinda like a flocked soft toy. That said, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you not to waste these on your kids, and buy one for yourself instead.
Allpress Chocolate Easter Eggs | Bennetts Of Mangawhai
Instore At Farro | Online From Allpress
Image credit: Farro / Website
Chocolate and coffee are long-time mates (besties even, if you favour mochas like me). And top chocolatiers Bennetts of Mangawhai are cashing in on this delicious friendship with their much-loved Allpress-spiked Easter eggs, which are returning for another year and with an extra flavour. Joining the dark chocolate double espresso eggs and milk chocolate flat white eggs that we know and love is what might just be their best offering yet—two amber chocolate caramel latte eggs. These treats are a gorgeous golden colour and infused with the brand's A.R.T Espresso for a superior caffeine hit, all of which has me frothing more than the foam on your cappuccino.
Check out Bennetts of Mangawhai's full Easter range here.
Giant Chocolate Lego Figurine | Miann
36-38 Galway Street, Britomart, Auckland | 136 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby, Auckland | 518 Sandringham Road, Sandringham, Auckland
Image credit: Miann / Instagram
Ask yourself, do you really need a giant chocolate Lego figurine for Easter? I think we both know the answer to that, don't we. And Miann's where you can get one, along with a tonne of other epic Easter treats including life-size footballs and rugby balls made entirely outta chocolate, and an egg that looks like it dropped in from a galaxy far, far away (IYKYK). Of course, one of the city's best chocolatiers is hardly going to stop the Easter celebrations there, so you can also expect carrot-shaped gingerbread, cute bunny gateaux, Easter egg-topped frangipane tarts (main image) and more. They also do some of Tāmaki's best hot cross buns... heard enough yet?
Easter Chocolate 12-Piece Box | Cocoa Wilds
12 O'Connell Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland
Image credit: Cocoa Wilds / Website
Sometimes life's like a box of chocolates... and, well, you know the rest. However, unlike that oft-quoted line from Forrest Gump, you know exactly what you're gonna get with this gorgeous offering from Cocoa Wilds. Best known for their viral marshmallow-rimmed hot chocolates, this spot is putting its best bunny paw forward for Easter with a 12-strong box of handcrafted choccies adorned with carrots, crosses, fried eggs, and flowers. Hidden inside these pretty confections you'll find fillings of hot cross bun, caramel pecan, carrot cake, manuka honey ganache, marshmallow caramel, and raspberry and vanilla—heaven, basically. Also available in a hefty 24-pack.
Check out Cocoa Wilds' full Easter range here.
Gelato Easter Egg | Bear Gelato X Ao Cacao
Online
Image credit: Bear Gelato / Supplied
And last but certainly not least, Bear Gelato and Ao Cacao have joined forces to create a limited-edition gelato Easter egg weighing over half a kilo (600 grams, to be exact). Handmade to order—with pre-orders open from now 'til 13 April—this next level Easter treat takes the form of a single-origin dark chocolate shell stuffed full of Bear Gelato's award-winning manuka honeycomb gelato with a creamy chocolate ganache 'yolk.' Secure the goods by popping onto their website with $55 then treat you and four friends or, like just you.
Can't get enough Easter goodness? Here's where to find Auckland's best hot cross buns.
Main image credit: Miann / Instagram