Remember the days when you dyed eggs and they were just the primary colors? You could either just use the regular food dye in the blue, red, yellow and green colors or you could go buy the Paas egg dyeing kits and make some cool colors and MAYBE there was a tie-dye version. There was none of this gold foil, marbled, glitter eggs.
Well, if you haven’t gotten to the age where you are dyeing eggs with your kiddos, or you just stick to the plastic eggs as I have the past few years, you may have missed the whole variety that these dye kits come with now. There are almost 30 different sets available on Target’s website. That’s a lot of options. There is even a “Galactic Eggs” set with art transfers. I’ll admit, that one looks pretty cool.
But I’m cheap. I didn’t really want to spend the money (and frustration) using a dye kit. This is where a different method caught my eye…
I’d seen the videos online in several different places. Each time I watched as a pair of hands masterfully rolled a hard-boiled egg in shaving cream and created this beautiful marbled effect on the egg shell. I was seriously impressed. And it seemed so easy! Shaving cream and food dye could do that? Seemed too good to be true.
Guys. It isn’t too good to be true. We did it with whipped cream (because I mean, hello, whipped cream is nutritious and delicious… or at least delicious). They turned out amazing. So here is how you dye eggs with whipped cream including some tips and tricks that I learned along the way through a little trial and error.
Supplies:
- Eggs
- Casserole dish
- Whipped cream (We used the spray can, but I read you could use Cool Whip as well)
- Food dye
- Spatula
- Toothpick
- Spoon
- Pot with water (for prepping eggs)
- Bowl with white vinegar (for prepping eggs)
- Paper towels
How to prep the eggs:
Prep the eggs by hard boiling them. I am going to admit that, previous to this experience, I did not know how to hard boil an egg. I’m not an egg eater, so this process was never at the top of my list to learn. Now I know the perfect way!
- Fill a pot with eggs. Cover the eggs with cool tap water until the water comes to about an inch over the eggs. (*Pro tip: If you touch one of the eggs in the water with your fingertip, an inch is just past the first knuckle.)
- Cover pot and set to boil.
- Once the water comes to a rolling boil, set timer for 7 minutes.
- Once 7 minutes is up, take the eggs out of the water and place them in another bowl.
- Cover eggs with white vinegar and allow them to soak for 20 minutes. Make sure all surfaces spend some time in the vinegar.
- After 20 minutes, rinse the eggs and dry them.
This method of hard boiling the eggs ensures that there isn’t a grey ring around the yolk and the yolk is perfectly creamy. The vinegar helps the dye to stick to the egg. I don’t exactly know how. I just assume it’s a bit of Easter magic!
How to dye eggs with whipped cream:
1. Fill the casserole dish with whipped cream. Use a spatula to smooth it so that the surface is smooth and covers all of the bottom.
2. Dot the surface with food dye. We used all four colors and did about 8-12 dots per color for a normal casserole dish size. I’m going to admit that we were not careful about the placement of the dye dots.
3. Use a toothpick and draw through the colors, creating lines in the whipped cream. This will help create the marbled effect.
4. Set the egg in the whipped cream. Using the handle end of the spoon, push the egg around in the whipped cream to make sure all sides are covered with whipped cream and a majority has color on it. It may take a bit of rolling around and back and forth, but using the spoon will keep your hands from turning all kinds of colors. This is also a great step to have kiddos help with.
5. Once covered, allow the eggs to sit in the whipped cream for 20 minutes. We did the first batch where they only sat for 10 minutes and the colors were not nearly as vibrant as they were after 20 minutes.
6. After 20 minutes, rinse off the eggs and gently pat dry. Super important to not rub dry or rub the whipped cream off.
7. Enjoy!
Little Mister might have a bit of a whipped cream high after this activity as he and I sat chowing down on whipped cream while we watched for the dye to set, but you only live once and the we only do this once a year. I’m not worried.
This process is a bit time consuming, so I wouldn’t suggest calling in your kids to help until you are absolutely ready for the actual dyeing part. Boiling the eggs and letting them soak in vinegar is just not that interesting.
This process created an amazing effect (or you could say…egg-ffect). I hope y’all have as much fun dyeing your eggs as we did! Happy Easter!