Easter

Suited for gifts, Vanille Patisserie in Chicago has chocolate bunnies filled with colorful jelly beans.

Vanille Patisserie also makes cakes festooned with springy flower designs, which are appropriate for Easter or any seasonal functions.

MK the Restaurant in Chicago has a springtime cocktail that looks like a liquid Easter egg. Dubbed "Tequila in Bloom," the drink has tequila, Crème Yvette, thyme-infused agave, and lime. It's served over ice cubes that have viola flower petals frozen inside, and its rim is lined with pink peppercorns.

How's this for an elaborate Easter pastry? At the Washington National Opera Ball in 2010, acclaimed baker Sylvia Weinstock created 300 small cakes resembling Fabergé eggs.

Magnolia Bakery, which has outlets in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, is offering Easter-theme snacks this spring. Suited to office parties, offerings include Vintage Springtime Cupcakes. In chocolate or vanilla, the treats are printed with edible images and topped with thick buttercream frosting.

In Chicago, restaurant Longman & Eagle and its marketing arm Land and Sea Dept. organizes an annual Adult Easter Egg Hunt. Winners are rewarded with Easter baskets that have a decidedly 21-plus spin: They're filled with candy, snacks, and bottles of locally brewed beer.

Truffleberry Market, a Chicago catering company, has plenty of pastel-hued dishes on its menu. For a recent baby shower, the firm used hollowed-out lemons to hold its Meyer lemon meringue panna cotta. A fresh green leaf on top of the dish added a springy, verdant feel.

The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's Bunny Hop took place at New York's F.A.O. Schwarz in March 2013. Small topiaries shaped like the animal of honor spruced up the family-friendly event, which also had a balloon artist, face painting, and a station for decorating cookies.

Chicago restaurant Sunda puts a spin on traditional Easter brunch with its "Low Tea" service. The meal, which is offered on Sundays, includes breads with spreads such as honey-butter and papaya jam; savory bites including a lobster-bacon roll; orange-creamsicle cookie bites; and teas from Rare Tea Cellars.

In Orlando, the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival features topiary shaped like familiar characters. In one such arrangement, a leafy Miss Piggy sits atop a suitcase, waving at passersby. The show runs through May 17.

The theme for this year's Macy's Spring Flower Show is "Art in Bloom." In the New York store, a color-blocked arrangement that recalls the art of Piet Mondrian is placed over trellises. Shoppers walk beneath the colorful arrangement. The show, which is at three Macy's stores, runs through April 24.

The show features floral installations in escalator banks.

The show features "bouquet of the day" arrangements from designers such as Martha Stewart (pictured.)

Also part of the abstract garden, a guitar-shaped planter holds cacti and other desert-inspired plants.

In the Impressionist garden in Minneapolis, a set inspired by Van Gogh's "Starry Night" backs a garden filled with purple, blue, and yellow blooms.

A pink statue is central to the Expressionist garden, which is filled with bromeliad, air plants, staghorn fern, croton petra, Cordyline fruticosa Picasso’s Red, and other plants and flowers.

In each city of the Macy's flower show, a white statue of David prop has pixel-map projections flickering across its surface. The installation is meant to represent a juxtaposition between modern and Renaissance art.

A giant gold frame forms the entrance of the Macy's Spring Flower Show in Chicago.

The Impressionist garden is filled with pastel hues and a set featuring an idyllic house.

In the Pop Art garden, moss and plants spell out the words "bloom" and "flower" in comics-like signage.

To underscore the theme, a giant paint can serves as a planter at the Chicago show.

The Chicago Flower and Garden Show ran at Navy Pier from March 14 to 22. Peach Blossom Creative Designs created an inventive spin on a beer garden, with a tabletop that had a beer bottle chandelier hanging overhead. The vignette also featured "floral kegs" made with cylinder vases, beer bottles, and tubing.

Debi Lilly of A Perfect Event also designed a tabletop for the show. Lilly's inspiration was "the new, green Garden of Eden." Her installation used vintage cutlery and glassware and lush, springy floral arrangements. There were also individual flower-topped cakes on each place setting.

Citygirl event production created a tabletop inspired by "the viewpoint of a sophisticated city lifestyle with an emphasis on sustainable elements."

Boston's flower show took place at the Seaport World Trade Center March 11 to 15. One exhibit, designed by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, was dubbed "An Enchanted New England Woodland Walk." The setting incorporated a miniature waterfall and a woodsy table set for two.