Balthazar Boulangerie’s Easter hamper

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Tea, spiced cookies, macaroons and a simnel cake to kick off festivities

One of the biggest restaurant launches of 2013 was Balthazar, the London incarnation of Keith McNally’s New York restaurant, which has now become a reliable Covent Garden favourite just a year after opening. But it is the Balthazar Boulangerie next door where the waiters are even more rushed off their feet, for the simple reason that the cakes, pastries and chocolate are just this side of heaven.

So as their thoughts came around to Easter, the members of the Boulangerie team posed themselves a question: why should a hamper be for Christmas but not for Easter? No reason at all, they concluded and leapt to create one of the most enticing new seasonal gifts, the Balthazar Easter hamper (£95), on sale from Monday March 31.  

“We loved the idea of creating an Easter present in the form of a hamper, which, when emptied onto the kitchen table at home, would become the perfect Easter Day afternoon tea,” says Mike Britton, Balthazar Boulangerie manager. Abundant in its straw-lined wicker frame, the hamper holds a tin of Balthazar-blend Postcard Easter tea, Easter Bunny spiced cookies, a box of macaroons and a jar of homemade raspberry jam – all surrounding a traditional simnel cake, embellished with 11 marzipan eggs symbolising the 11 true disciples.

But it doesn’t stop there, for no Easter tea would be complete without chocolate. Ten Florentines jostle cheek-by-jowl with half a Balthazar chocolate egg, packed with truffles, but it is the stunning Balthazar “Fabergé” Easter egg, hand-painted with gold and decorated with flowers, that will inspire awe.

“The intricate work on the Fabergé egg took some patience,” explains Régis Beauregard, head pastry chef. “But my favourite item in the hamper is the macaroon gift box, which I loved so much that I’ve persuaded the Boulangerie to have it on sale all year round.” That shouldn’t have taken too much persuasion, given that Beauregard built up The Ritz London tea business over a decade and is now doing a booming tea trade at Balthazar. A New York, French-style English tea? Given that Keith McNally is London born, this all comes as full circle as a Balthazar Easter egg.