Easter is almost upon us and Manchester’s restaurants and bars have very much risen to the occasion with some brilliant-looking Easter foodie specials.
From sweet Scotch Eggs that take the pub classic to a whole other level, to deep-fried Creme Eggs, hot cross bun fried chicken French toast, a hot cross bagel and even a hot cross cocktail, there are some banging Easter treats kicking around Manchester this weekend.
Keep reading to discover where to get your sweet fix.
Black Milk, Biscoff Scotch Egg
Image: The Manc Eats
Manchester dessert cafe Black Milk Cereal has created these amazing sweet scotch eggs for Easter.
Swapping out sausage meat for Lotus Biscoff, these genius little treats give the seasonal Cadbury mainstay quite the glow up – in the most Northern fashion possible.
ADVERTISEMENT
Comprised of Lotus Biscoff cake mix, white chocolate, and a Cadbury’s Creme Egg with its glossy signature runny ‘yolk’ intact, the ultra-indulgent delight is topped off with a Biscoff crumb to give it that out-of-the-pub-fridge look we all secretly crave.
Available from Black Milk’s Northern Quarter site from now right up to Easter, the sweet Scotch Eggs can be enjoyed to eat in or takeaway from £5.95.
Bread Flower is getting in on the Easter action with this hot cross bun-bagel hybrid.
Think a cardamom and cinnamon raisin bagel, topped with the classic cross and finished with an apricot glaze, and served with a marmalade schmear.
ADVERTISEMENT
Find a limited number available on the Bread Flower counter at Ducie Street Warehouse this weekend.
Grandpa Greene’s, Easter Egg Hot Chocolate
Image: Grandpa Greene’s
The popular canalside ice cream parlour and cafe in Diggle, Saddleworth, has teamed up with beloved local chocolatier Slattery’s to give the people what they want.
This year, they’ve updated their original hot chocolate recipe and it now comes with a full Slattery Easter egg, marshmallows, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and mini eggs.
Find it at their Oldham site throughout the month.
Manchester bakery Siop Shop is churning out these fried hot cross donuts in honour of the Easter weekend.
Available from now until Easter Sunday at the Tib Street cafe, in previous years they’ve simply iced the cross on but this year the team has gone the whole hog.
DGHNT, Hot Cross Donuts
Artisan donut baker Sulin Baldwin has created these cardamoom creme-filled hot cross donuts for the Easter weekend.
Covered in a milk chocolate glaze and vanilla drizzle, inside they’re simply bursting with pastry cream.
Available for delivery in Altrincham and Sale, or collection from the Northern Quarter, drop her a message on Instagram to place your order.
ADVERTISEMENT
Gooey, Easter box
Image: Gooey
Gooey has created a special Easter box which will be available from its Ducie Street Warehouse kiosk over the long weekend.
Featuring a carrot cake cookie, chocolate-glazed Easter donut filled with white chocolate mousse and passion fruit jam, red velvet cookie cake and dulce de leche-glazed cruller, this looks like one of their best yet.
A Cadbury creme egg, battered and deep fried, served with vanilla ice cream and a dusting of sugar icing, these bad boys will be given away for free on Good Friday to the first 100 through the door.
The kitchen is also making its ‘Hot Cross Fried Chicky’, combining its tender buttermilk fried chicken with a crispy, streaky bacon cross, maple syrup glaze and sweet cinnamon buttered apples, piled into a vanilla custard french toast-fried hot cross bun.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ciaooo x Black Milk, Easter chocolate pizza
Image: Ciaooo Pizza MCR
Swan Street pizzeria Ciaoo has teamed up with its Oldham Street neighbours Black Milk Cereal to create this ultimate Easter dessert.
A chocolate pizza loaded with pieces of Kinder Bueno, Kinder Maxi, Nutella, Kinder Surprise and Black Milk’s own homemade Kinderella sauce.
Alex’s Bakery, Easter Egg Cake
Image: Supplied
Famed for its buttercream cupcakes and loaded chocolate brownies, Alex’s Bakery, has launched a Mini Egg Easter Cake for the weekend.
Lovingly created with vanilla sponge, strawberry jam, buttercream and packed with over 100 Mini Eggs, it’s the perfect treat to share with family and friends over a coffee catch up this Easter.
In honour of the Easter weekend, swanky Northern Quarter cocktail bar Mecanica has announced a limited edition ‘Hot Cross Bun’ cocktail.
Featuring Cinnamon Butter washed Bourbon, Pedro Ximénez and Orange Bitters, this is a drink not to be missed.
Fress, Creme Egg Freakshake
Image: Fress
If you want to get your freak on this Easter, Fress has got you covered with a special Creme Egg Freakshake.
Loaded with the ever-popular Cadbury’s favourite, it’s available at the Northern Quarter site for a limited time only.
Dormouse Chocolates, Eggs on Toast Bar
Image: Supplied
Award-winning Manchester chocolatier Dormouse Chocolates has created an ‘Eggs on Toast Bar’ ready for the weekend.
ADVERTISEMENT
Comprised of a bread and butter milk chocolate topped with a white chocolate fried “egg” – it offers a tasty take on a breakfast classic and the perfect alternative to a traditional Easter egg.
View the chocolatier’s full Easter selection here.
Manchester’s historic Portico Library secures £6.4m funding grant towards its transformation
Emily Sergeant
Manchester’s Portico Library has secured a whopping £6.4 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
In case you missed it, ambitious plans to transform the historic Grade II-listed building on Mosely Street were already unveiled last October… but now, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has announced it is committing £6.4 million of funding towards the project, hoping that the building thrives as the UK’s most sustainable historic library for generations to come.
The grant is being described as a ‘major milestone’ in the approximately £12 million Portico Reunited project.
The Portico Reunited project will look to ‘reunite’ the historic building’s three floors for the first time in over a century, creating a fully-accessible and sustainable cultural library.
Founded all the way back in 1806, The Portico Library played a central role in Manchester’s rise as the world’s first modern city, and since then has been serving as a window into the past and a providing a place of inspiration for anyone who needs it.
The Portico Library has secured a £6.4m funding grant towards its transformation / Credit: Purcell Architecture (Supplied)
Crucially, plans will see a step-free entrance and lift installed to make the library accessible to all.
There’ll also be new exhibition and event spaces introduced as part of the scheme to explore the stories of Manchester’s communities and the city’s heritage. There will a Northern Bookshop, showcasing regional and emerging writers, and independent publishers, as well as a creative Portico Kitchen, which will celebrate the city’s food culture, writing, and history.
A place for school groups, families, and all people to explore Portico’s collection and experiment creatively also forms part of the plans.
Dr Thom Keep, Librarian and CEO of The Portico Library, called the funding grant a ‘landmark moment’ in the Portico’s ‘rich and complex history’, and a ‘huge achievement’ for its staff, trustees, volunteers, and partners.
“Thanks to National Lottery players, we can reunite this extraordinary building and make room for people to discover, learn and create together,” he added.
“We have listened to thousands of people about what the Portico could become, and their ideas and experiences have helped shape these plans.
“Our ambition is a library that belongs to the whole city – a place to discover remarkable collections, question the stories we have inherited, and create new possibilities together.”
Manchester City Council has granted planning permission and listed building consent for the project, and the building is expected to close for construction in late spring 2028 and reopen once again in early March 2030.
Following reopening, the transformed library is expected to welcome around 95,000 visitors each year.
Featured Image – Purcell Architecture (Supplied)
News
New data estimates that 7.3m Oasis fans are set to miss out on 2027 tour tickets
Emily Sergeant
New data has revealed that as many as 7.3 million Oasis fans could be set to miss out on tickets to the band’s 2027 tour.
In case you need bringing up to speed a little, it was announced earlier this week that, following the unprecedented success of the reunion tour, Oasis Live ’25, last year, including five nostalgia-drenched gigs at Manchester’s Heaton Park, Oasis would be hitting the road once again in 2027, and this time around, they’re going BIG.
We’re talking 11 nights at the Etihad Stadium and a return to the iconic grounds of Knebworth for four special shows there too, kind of ‘big’.
The iconic Manchester band will also be taking to a range of other world-famous stages across the globe, including five nights at Glasgow’s Celtic Park, and major cities like Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, and Las Vegas.
But despite the elevated number of dates the Gallaghers and co will be performing, some new data has unfortunately revealed that millions of fans may still not be lucky enough to snag a ticket.
The ticketing system for Oasis Live ’27 is not what it was for the last tour, nor will it be similar to many other tours of a similar scale in the past either, as this time, the band and their promotors are taking necessary measures to ensure ‘genuine fans’ get their hands on the tickets and that dynamic pricing doesn’t creep in.
Instead of going into detail on that now though, you can read our full guide on how to get tickets for the Manchester and Knebworth shows here.
Experts at online ticketing platform TicketSource have analysed the scale of demand for Oasis tickets by comparing the 10 million fans worldwide who queued for the initial release of 1.4 million tickets for their 2025 tour, with the newly announced 2027 tour dates and stadium capacities.
With an estimated 2.67 million tickets available across 38 dates and 11 locations between 21 May and 19 September 2027, Oasis could still face huge demand from fans hoping to see them live.
But research reveals the band would need to play 112 Wembley-sized shows to accommodate everyone who tried to get a ticket in 2025.
The 2027 tour would accommodate just 26.7% of those who tried to get tickets last time, meaning almost three-quarters (73%) of them could miss out, leaving a shortfall of more than 7.3 million fans.
Fingers crossed you’re among the lucky lot that secure tickets, though.
Featured Image – Joshua Halling (Press Image – Supplied)
Georgina Pellant -
12th April 2022 
