Little Foodies

Little Foodies: Egg Dyeing Basics for Easter

The Foodies' KitchenMarch 8, 2016

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Easter is around the corner, so this year we got a little crafty at Little Foodies, we thought it would be a good idea to post egg dyeing techniques so you can make them with your kids. This is the first technique, which covers your basic egg dyeing using food color, water and vinegar, and with small variations, you can get different finishes for your eggs, using the same colored waters. First, we’ll walk you through our method to hard-boil eggs, because before you start you need to have those ready. So the kids don’t have to wait when you make this project, you can hard-boil a bunch of eggs while they are in school, or on a weekened morning, so the kids can get crafting right away.

The important thing when dyeing your eggs, is to use hot (not scalding) water, and a ratio of 1 teaspoon of white vinegar for each cup of water. Add about 20-25 drops of food coloring. We used regular plastic glasses from the supermarket, we chose the transparent variety so we could check on our work. You’ll also need some plastic spoons to help you get the eggs out of the colored water, and an empty egg carton to rest the eggs so they can dry off.

In upcoming posts, we’ll share the Melted Crayon, and Watercolor techniques for egg dyeing. Stay tuned!

Kitty & Helga

Basic Egg Dye

Ingredients:
1 cup of hot water
1 teaspoon vinegar
20-25 drops of food coloring

Utensils:
plastic glasses
plastic spoons
empty egg carton, so the eggs can dry after being dyed.
paper towels to help dry eggs off.
small stickers, from office supply store.

Procedure:

Hard-boil as many eggs as you want to color: To do so, place eggs in a pot so they fit in one layer, add cold water to cover them at least 1 – 2 inches. Add a teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of vinegar to the water. Bring water to a full boil. Let it boil for 1 minute. Cover the pot, turn off the heat and let the eggs stand for 10-12 minutes. Carefully, discard the hot water and let the eggs cool.
When the eggs have cooled and you are ready to start dyeing, place 1 cup of hot water in a plastic glass, add vinegar and food coloring and stir until mixed.

Basic Egg Dye

Gently, place your cooked eggs in a glass with colored water. The longer the eggs sit in the water, the more intense the colors will be. We let them sit for 5 minutes, but they can stay in there for as long as 10 minutes. When the time is up, take them out with a plastic spoon and rest them on an empty egg carton to dry off.

Two-Toned Eggs

If you want to make two toned eggs, like ours, use the light color first. Dip them completely in a light color, such as yellow or red. Let them sit for 5 minutes, when the time is up, take them out and dry them off. With clean hands, dip the egg half way into a second color, which should be darker. You’ll have to hold the egg with your hand for about 2 minutes. We used red for the second color on our yellow egg, and blue as the second color on a red egg. Try not to dip your fingers in the dye when you submerge the egg into the second color, so you get a clean line to divide both colors.

Stenciled Eggs

We used star stickers from an office supply store to stencil our eggs. Place the stickers on the eggs, and make sure they are well placed so color doesn’t seep underneath. After you finished placing your stickers, dip the egg into the colored water. Let the eggs dry first, before trying to remove the stickers. You can dip them in a second color, but we found that it is best to leave the stenciled shaped white, or perhaps use brown eggs for this method. The dipping into the second color didn’t turn out so great, the stencil smudged a bit.