The very first Cadbury Easter Eggs appeared way back in 1875. They were dark chocolate, filled with ‘dragees’: sugar-coated chocolate drops. The earliest decorated eggs saw chocolate piping and marzipan flowers added to these plain shells.
By 1893 there were 19 different Easter products on the Cadbury list. Richard Cadbury was a talented artist, and many of his designs were based on French, Dutch and German originals, adapted to Victorian tastes.
In 1906 a cardboard ‘fancy’ egg filled with assorted chocolates appeared, and they were produced for the UK market until the 1930s (and the 1950s for the export market).
Jump to 1925 and Cadbury are selling 14 Easter lines, including a large egg wrapped in foil and decorated with a bow, a decorated egg and four cardboard eggs with assorted chocolates. Fry (who Cadbury had merged with in 1919) were selling a whopping 50 lines, including chocolate cream novelties like bears, lions, elephants and pigs as well as small cream and hollow eggs.
And these cream-filled eggs obviously led on to one of today’s most sought-after treats – Cadbury Creme Eggs.