Have You Spotted These Edwardian Chocolate Bunnies in San Francisco?

Stroll through the Stonestown Farmers Market on a sunny spring morning, and you might spot a stall smothered in chocolate. Behold, an array of bars, bonbons, chocolate caramels, dipped figs and — a particular treat for this time of year — a matching pair of remarkably detailed chocolate bunnies. The male bunny sports a waistcoat and walking stick; the female bunny swishes her skirt and carries a parasol.

“They’re in their Easter Sunday best,” says the maker, David Upchurch.

Upchurch was originally an architect before he fell in love with pastry in Paris and career-changed into chocolate. During the recession, starting in 2009, he trained at City College of San Francisco and San Francisco Baking Institute. For the next five years, he worked at Recchiuti Confections, the craft chocolate tastemaker with a reputation for pulling fresh flavors from the farmers market. Upchurch started his own super-small-batch business during lockdown in 2020. Today, he shares a tiny production kitchen in SoMa while applying for a cottage license to work out of his home in Noe Valley.

He found the first male bunny while online shopping. As one does, Upchurch was doing a deep dive on eBay, shopping for antique chocolate molds. He scrolled across a dealer based in Brussels, who had a wide selection of molds from the early 20th century. He ordered a dozen, and the one of a male rabbit quickly became a favorite. It was made by Anton Reiche in Dresden, Germany, around 1920, Upchurch believes, according to its catalog number. “He’s extremely dapper,” Upchurch says. Many molds are designed to be perfectly symmetrical, but this rabbit has movement. “For lack of a better reference, he’s posed like a Neoclassical figure.”

He found the exact mate while browsing Omnivore Books. Like any good resident of Noe Valley, Upchurch likes chatting with bookmonger Celia Sack, owner of the only cookbook shop in San Francisco, which also carries vintage menus and assorted antiques. When he spotted the female bunny on her website, he scurried over. “It was total kismet,” Upchurch says. They’re a matching pair, from the exact same maker and time period. If anything, the female bunny was in even better shape. “She aged more gracefully.”

Upchurch affectionately calls his rabbits Bert and Mary, after the chimney sweep and nanny in Mary Poppins. Let’s call it loose inspiration because of course we’re hopping countries and years a smidge: Mary Poppins is set in London in 1910 during the Edwardian era — King Edward ruled from 1901 to 1910, and the era continued until 1914. So technically these molds were made just after, but the bunnies do wear old-fashioned clothes. “The lady bunny reminds me of Mary Poppins with her flowing skirt, parasol and boots,” Upchurch says.

You may buy one of these bunnies in either milk or dark chocolate. Upchurch has a passion for sourcing more interesting and nuanced chocolate from Conexión in Ecuador, instead of the ubiquitous Valrhona from France or Callebaut from Belgium. The milk chocolate is 40 percent cacao, with a pretty caramel color and flavor, and rich mouthfeel thanks to milk from grass-fed cows in the Andes. The dark chocolate is 64 percent cacao, with light bitterness and nutty and citrusy notes of pecan and lemon.

The molds are made of tin, and it’s tricky working with antiques. Upchurch tempers the chocolate and starts brushing each mold by hand to hit every nook and cranny. He pours in a light layer, clamps the halves shut and turns to coat. Then he pours in a thick layer, lets the chocolate set for several minutes and turns out the excess, ultimately leaving a sturdy shell to set for several hours. The molds aren’t symmetrical, and they don’t always want to close tidily. Does it get messy? Of course. Upchurch has also invested in new plastic molds, available in the same pattern. They don’t have the same depth of detail, but they’re so much faster and easier to use.

He only makes a few dozen bunnies every year, so catch them if you can. Upchurch sells at the Stonestown Farmers Market on Sundays and Marin Farmers Market on Thursdays, as well as through a couple of shops like Chocolate Covered and Collage Gallery. The rabbits are priced at $29 each, and yes of course, that’s more than your everyday drugstore bunny. Consider the quality and freshness of the chocolate, responsibly sourced from a farming cooperative and all shaped by hand. They stand about 7 inches tall and 3 inches around, so you’re holding between 5 to 7 ounces of good chocolate.

When the bunnies surely sell out, do not despair. Upchurch has a few other Easter treats, including smash eggs, caramel eggs and peanut butter bunny bars. Of course, there are also many talented confectioners in the Bay Area, happy to help fill baskets — Dandelion has marshmallow eggs, and Recchiuti offers ganache eggs, along with Christopher Elbow’s spaceship bunnies, Socola’s egg hunt bars, Formosa’s bonbon chicks and many more.

Yet there’s something so enchanting about an early 20th century chocolate bunny, hopping between our elegant Edwardian homes painted in pastel colors in misty San Francisco. “Oh absolutely,” Upchurch agrees. “They’re very much at home here.”

David Upchurch Chocolatier sells at the Stonestown Farmers Market in San Francisco on Sundays from 9 a.m.–1 p.m. and at the Marin Farmers Market in San Rafael on Thursdays from 8 a.m.–1 p.m. A limited number of chocolate bunnies are available until sold out.