Counting down to Easter with our favorite Easter candy: Cadbury Creme Eggs

Easter symbolizes many things. Rebirth. The arrival of spring.

And candy.

We're using the arrival of Easter Sunday as an excuse to celebrate our favorite spring and Easter candies. What are your favorite Easter candies? Monday, we caught up with the Whitman's Sampler. Today: The Cadbury Creme Egg

Price: About $1

Where you can buy it: Supermarkets, convenience stores and big box stores

Claim to fame: First sold 40 years ago, Cadbury Creme Eggs are now one of the British chocolate company's most popular candies despite being sold only a few months out of the year.

If you associate these egg-shaped chocolates with clucking bunnies, you're probably not crazy. In 1982, Cadbury launched its "Clucking Bunny" campaign to advertise its fondant-filled eggs.

What's changed over the years: In the U.S., they've gotten smaller. This didn't escape the attention of "The Office" actor B.J. Novak, who drew attention to this candy reduction during a 2007 appearance on "Late Night With Conan O’Brien." He brought an egg of yesteryear and a present-day egg for a side-by-side comparison. The egg of today was noticeably smaller. Today, Cadbury Creme Eggs in the U.S. are five grams less than their British counterparts (34 grams versus 39 grams).

Fan favorite: Cadbury Creme Eggs are its staple product, but variations include the Caramel Egg, Treasure Eggs (hollow chocolate eggs with treats in the middle) and Eggheads (hollow chocolate eggs decorated with a festive wrapper).

Sales figures or production figures over the last five years: Cadbury Creme Eggs are sold only about four months out of the year, but annual sales exceed $300 million globally. In the U.K., they are the bestselling confectionary from New Year's to Easter. (Cadbury was recently purchased by Kraft Foods in a deal that creates the world's biggest chocolate company.)

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Photo: Cadbury

Counting down to Easter with our favorite Easter candy: Whitman's Sampler

 
Easter symbolizes many things. Rebirth. The arrival of spring.

And candy.

We're using the arrival of Easter Sunday as an excuse to gobble up -- I mean, research -- some of our favorite candies, the ones that just sing spring and Easter. First up: The 12-ounce Whitman's Sampler assorted chocolates (with special Easter wrapping). 

Price:  $9.99
 
Where you can buy it:  CVS drug stores, for one, or www.russellstover.com
 
Claim to fame: The Whitman's Sampler, a favorite of drug stores everywhere, with the easy-to-spot cross-stiched designs on the box lid … just like … a … sampler.
 
How has it changed?: Whitman's Chocolates opened its doors in 1842 in Philadelphia, and its first box of packed chocolates appeared in 1854. Seemingly, someone -- maybe Mr. Whitman himself -- anticipated America’s love affair with chocolate and sugar and packaging. The company prospered for decades, adding such new-fangled trappings as cellophane overwrap and advertising in publications such as the Saturday Evening Post. The first Sampler appeared in 1912. (Do we feel a centennial Sampler coming on?) During World War I, chocolates were packaged with "vest-pocket" editions of "classics by well-known authors" and sent to troops overseas. During World War II, the company reportedly received special allotments of tin to send 6 million pounds of candy to servicemen. Even the Smithsonian has Whitman’s artifacts.
 
Sales figures: Whitman's was acquired by Kansas City, Mo.-based Russell Stover in 1993. One source listed (2007) sales at the family-held company at $575 million.
 
But what does it taste like?: We'd like to quote a Village Voice blog that recently evaluated Valentine candy (samplers) under the Whitman's and Russell Stover labels (Whitman's was the winner): "The overall selection is better with more distinguishable fillings as opposed to that general sweet corn syrup flavor that marks the Russell Stover choices. The English-style toffee chocolates were pretty good, plus the signature branded chocolate was a nice touch.... At the end of the day, though, they both still taste like $5 chocolates chock full of artificial flavorings."

The bottom line: Four pieces will cost you about 230 calories.

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Photo: Whitman's Chocolates

Peep Art: A conversation with the Princess of Peeps

Springtime is Peeps time.

For some people that means gobbling up the squishy sugar birds and bunnies that pop up in the supermarkets each Easter. For others, it’s become a tradition to submit Peep dioramas, paintings and sculptures to the many Peep art competitions held around the country.

To find out more about Peep art, I spoke with Sandy Oxx, executive director of the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster, Md. For the past four years her small museum has played host to an annual Peep Show fundraiser, inviting people in the community to make Peep-inspired art.

She estimates she has processed over 600 pieces of art made out of and inspired by Peeps -- everything from a life-sized “Where the Wild Things Are” monster sculpted in Peeps to a 2-by-3-foot mosaic portrait of Jesus made entirely out of the little birds (it’s called “Sweet Jesus.”)

Because the art center is housed in a former Deco movie theater, Oxx also collects stop-action animated Peep movies the center receives.  “Peeplet,” a re-enactment of "Hamlet" using Peeps, was a recent entry.

“It’s amazing what people do with Peeps,” Oxx said. “Some of it is artistic; some of it is a play on words. I’m kind of jaded so it’s the real works of art that get me excited.”

According to Oxx, one great thing about Peep art is that the Peeps never seem to go bad. “We have Peep artworks from two to three years ago that still look great,” she said. “They preserve beautifully.”

Oxx agreed to let us show some of the Peep art her museum has collected over the years. Click here to enjoy the Peep Show.

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The Project: Carrot cake

Each Friday, we post a recipe from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen that's perfect for weekend cooking -- you know, when you have a little more time on your hands. Today, we've got Easter on our mind, so we're going with this recipe for carrot cake. It takes about 90 minutes -- mostly hands-off cooking time -- plus cooling and chilling time. That means it's an ideal make-ahead dessert for Easter Sunday.   

--Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch

Photo credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Calling all questions for Times Test Kitchen Manager Noelle Carter

Join us here tomorrow at 11 a.m. where we'll put Times Test Kitchen Manager Noelle Carter on the spot: She'll answer your questions about all things food, offering last-minute Easter menu tips and more. (Actually, we know from personal experience that it's pretty much impossible to stump Noelle. But that doesn't mean we won't try!)

-- Rene Lynch

Sampler Platter: Curry summit, National Beer Day, Cat Cora and the MIT chocolate lab

A big, fat, juicy dose of food news...

• Inside MIT's Laboratory for Chocolate Science. Yes, that is a real place. Boston Globe
• Iron Chef Cat Cora's partner, Jennifer, gives birth to the couple's third child. Cora is expecting the couple's fourth child in June. Huffington Post
• Chefs at British "curry summit" call for national college dedicated to Indian cookery. Guardian
• Opening of Dean & Deluca in Fashion Island in Newport Beach delayed until 2010. Stick A Fork In It
• LA Mill in Silver Lake sits on top of microquake epicenter. LAist
• Brewers and politicians join forces to call for National Beer Day in the U.K. The Herald
• Obesity kills more Americans than terrorism. Consumerist
• Do healthful eating options on a menu actually make people eat less healthfully? New York Times
• Legislators consider banning trans-fats in … Texas?! Business Week
• West Virginia kills a bill requiring restaurants to post nutritional info. Forbes
• The bakers from "Ace of Cakes" build a Hubble-themed dessert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Goddard Space Flight Center. Fox News

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Jungle curry with pork at Jitlada Thai restaurant in Hollywood. (Credit: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times).

Sampler Platter: Offal art, marshmallow Peeps, kogi in the O.C.

Monday food news...

• Explore the fashion and artistry of raw meat in "Offal Taste," a photo series filled with beef heart necklaces, tripe brassieres, a headdress made of animal intestines and more. Eat Me Daily
• Easter-themed food meme of the week: Some fanatic compiles "Marshmallow Peeps on the Internet -- A Study," 130 Peep websites worth visiting. Unlikely Words
• In Saveur magazine's 12 Restaurants That Matter, the only L.A. joint is... Musso & Frank. (The eateries are listed in the tab on the left that says "Articles.")
• Franklin Avenue gets hip to Jitlada's southern Thai cuisine at this weekend's Songkran Thai New Year Festival.
• Kogi truck will be coming to the O.C. Fast Food Maven
• Glenn Close can stuff a fistful of carrots in her mouth. Daily Mail

-- Elina Shatkin

Credit: Bob Carey / Los Angeles Times