Ingredients
1. Eggs
2. Water
3. White Vinegar
4. Food coloring
5. Lemon juice
First step is to hard boil your eggs. Place the desired number of eggs in a pan (I usually throw in a few extra because one or two usually crack), fill the pan with cold water just to cover the eggs. Bring to a boil on the stove and boil for 5 minutes. Turn off stove and let cool. If you’re in a hurry you can drain off the hot water, fill the pan with cold water, and repeat until the water is no longer pouring out hot – I always find that this method will crack an egg or two so I try to just wait if I can.
Fun with the Eggs
Egg coloring (per color)
2/3 cup hot water
2 Tbsp white vinegar
Food coloring
Combine the water and vinegar in a small bowl – make sure it’s big enough to put your egg in it – then add food coloring until you reach your desired shade. The vinegar helps set the color so you get a much more vibrant color.
After all your colors are mixed gently place the egg in a color and let it soak until your egg reaches the desired shade.
Be creative, there’s lots of ways to make speckled or designed eggs.
1. Wrap a rubberband around your egg before soak it for a crazy striped egg
2. Wrap a small piece of lace around your egg before soaking for a fancy design – this method also gives you a little “handle” for your egg so it’s a lot easier for kids to dip and soak the eggs
3. Dip half the egg in one color and half the egg in another color
4. Dye one color and then paint with another – the kids love this too! You can make special egg “paint” with less water and vinegar and more food coloring.
I like to dry my eggs on my cookie racks set over a stack of newspapers or paper towels. Remember, food coloring stains, so don’t get it on anything you don’t want colored.
Cleanup
Now, for the lemon juice. If your kids are like mine, their hands are now multi-colored. Lemon juice is great for removing color from little fingers! I just gave mine a small bowl and they pre-washed their hands with lemon juice before actually washing their hands with soap and water. Didn’t remove all the color but it got way more off than just soap and water.
