TigerChef

Think Easter, think eggs. Easter eggs can be decorated in many different ways, be it coloring, dyeing or rubber banding. Wondering where the custom of decorating eggs came from? The truth is that nobody really knows.

Before you start decorating your eggs, you can either hard-boil them or blow them.

To make a blown egg, poke a tiny hole at the top and bottom of the egg using a large needle. Push the needle into the egg and break the yoke. Holding the egg over a bowl or a sink, blow into the egg until it is completely emptied out. Whether you boil the eggs or blow them, make sure the egg is 100% dry before starting.

The most popular technique to decorate eggs is by food-coloring. Just combine 2 teaspoons of vinegar with 1/2 tablespoon of food coloring and add some water. Then, ever so gently, add the eggs. The darker you want the eggs to be, the longer you have to leave the eggs in the dye. When you get to the desired shade, remove the eggs and pat it dry.

To add some stripes to the eggs, use rubber bands. Wrap the rubber bands around the eggs, and drop them into the dye. Once you reach the preferred shade, remove them from the dye, pat them dry and take off the rubber bands. Now you can either leave it at that or you can paint the stripes using a different color dye.

If you are more of the natural type and don’t own food coloring, you have no reason to fret. You can dye the eggs with some natural ingredients found in your kitchen. To make red dye, use cranberries. For green, use spinach. For blue, blueberries should do the trick. As for yellow, turmeric will do. Brown, use coffee. Purple, use beets. A second way of creating color naturally is by using different flavor teas.

Mix the natural ingredient with 1/2 tablespoon vinegar and some cold water in a pot. Add raw eggs and bring it to a boil. Once the eggs are boiling, lower the flame and allow the eggs to simmer anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes. The longer you leave the eggs to simmer, the darker the egg will be. As for the younger ones, to avoid all mess, use crayons to color the eggs. Be sure not to apply too much pressure onto the eggs when working with them so as not to crack them.

Another fun way to decorate eggs would be sponge painting. You can either use a scissor or tear the sponge by hand into desired shapes and sizes. Dip the small pieces of sponge into acrylic paint and dab it onto the eggs. Allow the paint to dry. You can also use the paint or food-coloring to paint the eggs.

Now it’s time to be imaginative. Using the egg as the head, you can create all different kinds of animal or people. Decorate the eggs by means of arts-n-crafts such as googlie eyes, beads, yarn, glitter, colored paper, markers etc. Use white glue to stick the supplies onto the eggs.

So, roll up your sleeves and be creative!

Filed under: How-To • General

Tags: easter eggs