The Absolute Best Way To Use Up All Those Chocolate Easter Bunnies

With Easter festivities comes chocolate — a lot of it. Whether stacked in baskets, hidden inside plastic eggs, or adorning the table of your springtime feast, you'll find festive chocolate in many forms, but especially in the signature shape of a bunny rabbit. While it finds its roots in Germany, the origins of the chocolate bunny as we know it today can be traced back to Pennsylvania in 1890, when shop owner Robert L. Strohecker commissioned a giant chocolate bunny sculpture to be displayed in his drugstore window. Strohecker's grandson, Ben Strohecker, carried on the tradition via his chocolate company, Harbor Sweets, though these days almost all of our favorite chocolate brands offer their own version of the seasonal treat.

Alas, as much as we love munching the ears off of those adorable edible rabbits, there's bound to be plenty left over after the Easter festivities are done. Luckily, there are many ways one can repurpose extra chocolate, from using it as a layer in a chocolate tiffin to melting it down for use as a warm, dippable fondue. However, we'd argue that the absolute best, easiest, and most versatile method of using up those leftover chocolate bunnies is to incorporate them into your future ice cream sundaes. Not only do you have options in the form of different chocolate types and fillings, but you can also be as lazy or as involved as you'd like when it comes to how you actually choose to add them to your dessert.

Given that they can come in milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate varieties, the bunnies themselves can upgrade your ice cream sundae simply by being sprinkled on top. All you have to do is smash them into smaller chocolate crumbles, either by hand or by putting them into a plastic baggie and rolling (or smashing) them with a rolling pin. That said, some chocolate bunnies even come with nut, caramel, or peanut butter fillings, so they're practically ready-made sundae toppers in the form of one sweet Easter basket treat.

If you're willing to put a little bit more time and elbow grease into repurposing your extra chocolate for use in your sundaes, you can also melt it down to turn it into a warm, gooey syrup, perfect for drizzling over ice cream scoops. To create a smoother, silkier concoction more akin to a ganache, stir in some additional milk or cream as the bunny mixture melts. Trust us, it'll taste heavenly poured over creamy vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries.

You can also get a little creative and incorporate the bunny motif into your dessert. Perhaps you keep the candy's head intact and use it as a playful garnish, ears and all, or make use of the bunny's hollow body as an edible chocolate vessel for your ice cream. Kids and grownups alike are sure to have a blast cracking into it with their spoons. Our motto? Waste not your Easter candy, want not a boring ice cream sundae.