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| Strawberry eggs displayed with grass and pedestals. |
The gradient on these eggs is produced by leaving the lower sections of the egg in the red dye for longer periods of time, gradually removing the dye so that the upper-most sections are pinker to white. To make a perfect strawberry egg one must use a bit of timing and have a handy eye-dropper or nasal aspirator to help the process along the way... The more gradual the color change is from one end to the other is what folks predetermine to be superior dye job. However, I'm not such a stickler about Easter eggs. I like them all really and have enjoyed eating them perfect or not!
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| Left, hard boiling white eggs. Center, gradually remove dye with aspirator. Right, polished with cooking oil and ready to eat. |
How To Make Perfect Strawberry Easter Eggs:
- Hard boil a set of white eggs prior to the dying process. Let them cool but do not remove the shells.
- Make the egg dye with red food coloring only. Boil in the kettle approximately one and a half cups of water. You will need only as much water as is necessary to cover one egg entirely after it is submerged in the dye bath.
- Pour approximately one cup of the boiling water into a heat proof mug or dish.
- Add one Tablespoon of white vinegar to the water in the mug.
- Add 5 to 6 drops of red food dye into the water and stir. It is important that you make this dye very bright red. Have a second empty mug next to the one filled with dye so that you can save the dye removed for another strawberry egg.
- Now submerge the white egg into the red dye with the narrow end pointing up.
- Using an eye-dropper or aspirator to suck up just enough of the dye to reveal the tip of the egg after only a few seconds. This will be the whitest or palest part of the strawberry egg once the dying process is finished. Discard the extra dye into a spare container and repeat the removal of dye in the same way every few minutes. The egg will eventually be turned right-side up once the dying is done.
- Let the eggs air dry on a dish towel.
- Draw the tiny black seeds on the eggs using a black permanent ink pen.
- To add the caps, Mod Podge small green leaves to the wider top end of the strawberries if you prefer. I don't usually add the caps. I nestle these strawberry eggs inside of green cupcake liners at each brunch plate.
- Rub on a very light coating of cooking oil, using a paper napkin, to give the eggs a slight shine.
- Refrigerate till the next morning, Easter Sunday.
- Decorate an Easter brunch table with these eggs, crack to open and peal shell off.
- Crumble the hard boiled egg, sprinkle with salt and pepper and eat promptly with hash browns and sausage!
