Easter is here again and the shops are full of treats with everyone hurrying to purchase Easter presents for loved ones. But what shows your appreciation for someone more than a home-made gift? Perhaps, instead of buying your presents, you could make them instead! Here are a few Easter patents to help you on your way.

A classic Easter food is, of course, the hot cross bun. One superstition has it that buns which are baked on Good Friday will not grow mouldy or spoil for the rest of the year. Another is that such buns should be kept for medicinal purposes. If you're considering a sea voyage, a hot cross bun will protect against shipwreck, or if hung in the kitchen, they will protect against fires (and bread will be baked to perfection!). Regardless of whether you believe any of these superstitions or not, hot cross buns are eggsquisite!

The complicated part of a hot cross bun is, of course, the cross. For instruction on how to produce such a tricky shape, look no further than patent application GB1017524. This document explains precisely how to make a perfect hot cross bun with a Latin cross.

Of course, Easter is not Easter without the classic egg! While it has been the practice to decorate eggs for millennia, the decoration of eggs for Easter began as a Christian custom, in which eggs were stained with a red dye. Over time, this tradition has developed into colouring and patterning eggs in any colour or pattern of your choice. If you would like to have a go at colouring some eggs, think about using the egg colouring device disclosed in patent US3358644. This device allows you to draw stripes or dots onto your egg!

To most, Easter means a surplus of chocolate eggs. But there's no need to buy ready-made eggs from a shop if you know about patent US3961089! This patent explains how to form a perfect hollow chocolate egg using some simple moulds. 

So thanks to these handy patents, your loved ones can appreciate your eggcellent home-made Easter presents! Happy Easter!

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