For the young and the young at heart, the Easter Egg hunt is to the holiday what waking up at 5am and rushing downstairs to open presents is to Christmas.

But this Bank Holiday weekend, the Easter Egg hunt will take on a new dimension – with a special event taking place through the streets of Shrewsbury.

The Great Shrewsbury Easter Egg Hunt has been organised by award-winning chocolatier Julia Wenlock of Toot Sweets, based in Shrewsbury Market Hall. It is part of the weekend of activities which have been organised for the third street music festival, The Big Busk, which raises money for, and awareness of, Shrewsbury Ark, a centre for homeless and vulnerable people in the town.

The hunt will get under way at St Chad’s Church at 11.30am on Sunday 5 April, with the last entry at 2.30pm and the winner being announced at 4pm. The trial, suitable for all the family, should take around one hour to complete.

And for the event, Julia has made a very special egg.

She said: “The Easter Egg will be handmade using high quality chocolate. I will be using a combination of milk, white and dark chocolate to create a one-off, marble-effect egg. The egg will also have a range of toppings encrusted in the shell, including cinder toffee, which is one of the most popular combinations to have in the Easter Eggs I make.”

The egg will weigh a whopping 10kg, and will be presented in a special wrapped basket.

As well as organising the Easter Egg Hunt and creating the giant egg, Julia will be at St Chad’s throughout the day running a free workshop for children to come along and decorate an Easter-themed chocolate lollypop.

Julia said: “I've wanted to get involved with the Busk for the past couple of years, because I really like to try and support local community events as I believe they're good for the town.

“I think it's great that the Busk involves all ages, and spreading the event over the Easter weekend should mean more people can get involved and enjoy all the fantastic local artists we have. 

“I'm really looking forward to make the egg, I have previously made them for customers getting married around Easter as an alternative to a Wedding Cake. The egg is very large, so it's quite a challenge to make the shell and put the egg together without breaking it!”