Sweet Nostalgia For Easter

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Chocolate bunnies are as much a part of Easter as chocolate eggs but that was not always the case. In the past, the bunnies were made of sugar. I remember the red bunny, so shiny, sitting on the corner of the desk in my room.

The red SUGAR BUNNY is a part of my childhood. I never understood why it wasn’t more popular in Europe or the rest of the world. One year, when I gave one to my best friend in boarding school, her eyes widened. She had never seen anything like it and she took it home to Spain to show her family.

Today, only a few confectioners still master the production of such sugar bunnies and when one of them put them up for sale online, he was overrun with orders from all over the world. The shipping often costs more than the bunny itself, but I assume some things are just worth it.

The original sugar bunnies are red, but later, in the 80s, I saw some in blue and yellow. (If they are not transperent, cream was used as well.)

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Interestingly enough, only a few ingredients are needed to produce the small works of art. Isomalt sugar (a sugar substitute made of red beets and therefore a healthy alternative), red dye and natural raspberry flavoring.

Boiled and poured into molds, the sugar confectioners in Austria and Germany created bunnies on seesaws, bunnies with Easter baskets, small bunnies, large bunnies, bunny lollies and whole families of bunnies. They all have one thing in common – the red color.

Because the “red” has a Christian meaning. It is derived from the color of the blood of Jesus Christ and symbolizes the resurrection. (By the way, the first red Easter eggs were given away in the Orthodox Church.)

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I find the history of the Red Sugar Bunny interesting. As early as the 18th century, but more so from the 19th century onwards, the mostly red sugar bunny was made in southern Germany and Austria. Sugar had become more affordable because it could be refined from sugar beets in factories. Previously, the expensive cane sugar had to be imported. As a result, sugar not only became affordable for a wide range of people, but was also increasingly used by confectioners and bakers. Chocolate, on the other hand, back then was initially reserved only for the wealthy population.

Sugar bunnies! There is so much craftmanship involved and today only a handful of people keep the almost forgotten tradition alive in Neumarkt (Austria) and in Southern Germany.

For the Easter treat, the sugar mass must first be heated to 150 to 156 degrees Celsius so that it becomes thick. It must not be stirred during this process, otherwise the melted sugar would form crystals again.

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The hot liquid is then poured into two-part, thick-walled metal rabbit molds, which have been coated with vegetable oil. The liquid sugar must be poured out again shortly after filling the mold. The whole process requires a lot of strength. Large rabbit shapes weigh up to one and a half kilograms (3+ lbs) and together with the sugar, this can add up to a total weight of three kilograms (7 lbs) which have to be moved with one hand.

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To cool, the mold is placed on a metal grid. What remains is a hollow, thin-walled figure. After cooling and hardening, the excess sugar is tapped off the foot. Only then can the mold be opened and reveal the red, transparent rabbit figure. When opening, however, it depends on the exact time. Sometimes the sugar bunny is too soft, cracks and loses its shape, othertimes, it bonds too tightly to the metal mold and breaks when removed.

I was ready to give up, when I found a short YouTube movie in English. How do Sugar Bunnies taste? Like lollipops…simply delicious.

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Thank you for joining me on my trip down memory lane. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing this post.