Decorating the Perfect Easter Egg

The perfectly decorated Easter egg begins with the egg. Two of the most popular ways to decorate eggs begins with either a boiled egg or a blown (or hollowed egg).

Boiled Eggs

To avoid rubbery eggs do not cook eggs in boiling water. Instead, boil the water and remove the pan from the stove. Submerge the eggs in the hot, boiled water for 15-17 minutes.

Blown or Hollowed Easter Eggs

To hollow out an egg simply wash and dry your eggs. Then taking a thin needle, carefully poke a hole in each end of your egg. Cover the holes and shake the egg. Place your egg over a bowl or other container and gently blow into one of the holes in your egg. The egg white and yolk should make its way out of the other hole. Once the insides have been blown out wash and dry your egg again. Some eggs are easier to hollow than others. It will take patience and although more fragile, a hollowed out egg can be decorated and kept for many years to come depending upon how it is stored.

Decorating Ideas

Decorating your egg can be as simple or elaborate as you would like it to be. You can make beautifully designed Easter eggs with items you probably currently have in your home. Some of these ideas work egg-ceptionally well on the hollowed eggs.

• Ribbons – take leftover ribbons and glue them to your egg in the desired colors and patterns (blown eggs)

• Glitter – spread your egg with a thin layer of glue and then roll the egg around in glitter (superfine glitter will give your egg a sugared look (blown eggs)

• Lace – using the same principle as the ribbons decorate your egg (blown eggs)

• Sponge Paint – dig out your sponges and craft paint to create an original design

• Stickers – let the kids decorate using their favorite stickers

• Crayons – with a parent’s help color on a warm egg

• Mosaic – be creative and glue pieces of tissue paper, small pasta pieces or shells to your egg.

These recipes will come in handy if you have decided to stick with the tried and true dyed Easter egg

Simple Egg Dye

Combine 1/2 cup boiling water, 1 tsp. vinegar and the food color together adding drops of food coloring to achieve desired colors. Dip hard cooked eggs in dye for about 5 minutes or until desired color.

Natural Egg Dye

Dye your eggs in boiling water, with vinegar and the item used to create the desired color, boiling both eggs and dye items together. Don’t forget to compost your dye items when you are finished dyeing your eggs.

Color ideas:

Lavender
Small Quantity of Purple Grape Juice
Violet Blossoms plus 2 tsp Lemon Juice

Violet Blue
Violet Blossoms
Small Quantity of Red Onions Skins

Blue
Canned Blueberries
Red Cabbage Leaves

Purple
Grape Juice

Green
Spinach Leaves
Liquid Chlorophyll

Greenish Yellow
Yellow Delicious Apple Peels

Yellow
Orange or Lemon Peels
Carrot Tops
Celery Seed
Ground Cumin
Ground Turmeric
Saffron

Brown
Strong Coffee
Instant Coffee
Black Walnut Shells

Orange
Yellow Onion Skins

Pink
Beets
Cranberries or Juice
Raspberries
Red Grape Juice
Juice from Pickled Beets

Red
Lots of Red Onions Skins

Hard boiled, hollowed out, color dyed or fancier designs, anything goes when decorating your eggs for this Easter season. The only rule is to have fun.

Easter Egg Cocktail Spread Recipe

This is a great way to use up some of those Easter eggs. Serve with crackers or rye bread rounds for an appetizer before dinner. Finely chopped black olives can also be added to this spread as well as chopped pimento.

Ingredients:

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 hard boiled eggs, peeled, rinsed and chopped fine
2 t butter, softened
1/2 C green onions, diced fine

Directions:

Place the cream cheese into a mixing bowl. Add the chopped eggs and butter. Sprinkle the green onions into the mixture.

Use a rubber spatula and blend the ingredients together until well combined being sure the mixture has a spreadable consistency.

Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or until completely chilled through.

Serves: 8

History of Easter Eggs

It never fails. Year after year the stores pack their shelves with various items mean to “decorate” an egg. All dressed up for Easter, the plain, white egg you normally have for breakfast or use in your baking becomes a multi-colored, glittery, or tie-dyed work of art.

If you celebrate Easter then you, too, probably purchase dozens of eggs to decorate but do you know why you do it? Is it simply because that’s what your mother did each year because that’s what her mother did? And why does a bunny deliver them?

Though-out history, eggs have been a part of many spring celebrations. Eggs are generally thought of as a symbol of life and Easter is in Spring when new life abounds in the world. The Romans, who believe that “All life comes from an egg” used eggs in their spring festivals and feasts and salted hardboiled eggs were part of Jewish traditions as well.

Pagan beliefs viewed the egg as a sacred symbol and an old fable told of an egg that fell from heaven and hatched the goddess of Fertility, Astarte (Easter). Since then eggs have been found as symbols of new life and fertility in Rome, Northern Europe, China and Japan.

Christians later adopted the use of eggs into their Easter celebrations as the “seed of life” symbolizing Christ’s resurrection. Many different beliefs have been held about the actual use of eggs. It was once believed that eggs laid on Good Friday and cooked on Easter would promote fertility of the trees and crops will protecting against sudden deaths.

Today Easter Eggs have become a central part of Christian Easter celebrations in North America with chocolate Easter eggs, Easter egg hunts and decorating Easter eggs. It is unclear as to the specific reason for decorating eggs, but painted eggs have been part of spring celebrations in many cultures for centuries, each with their own styles and color traditions. Red and version of red have been the most common color in many cultures, symbolizing the blood of Christ.

The most famous Easter egg to date is the first Faberge egg. This small gold egg encased in platinum and enamel was created by Peter Carl Faberge in 1883 as an Easter gift for the Empress Marie of Russia from her husband Tsar Alexander. The egg was gorgeous, and a tradition began with a new egg being designed each Easter. Nicholas II, Alexander’s son, continued this tradition with a total of 57 eggs designed in total.

Today, Easter eggs are generally connected with the Easter Bunny and Easter egg hunts. The Easter bunny came to be part of Easter tradition because rabbits and hares are known for their ability to produce multiple births and that made them a natural choice for the celebration of spring and new life.

For many decades, young children have taken part in Easter egg hunts, searching for colorful eggs laid by the Easter bunny in the grass. Easter egg hunts have become a traditional part of American Easter celebrations, with the Whitehouse and many community churches hosting annual Easter egg hunts each year.