When I was really little I found one of these at an Easter Egg Hunt and thought I'd won the lottery! It is one of my earliest memories but I remember thinking how beautiful these eggs are. So I found a "how to" on them and made one for my kids. This is the site I used but modified the instructions slightly. Mine didn't turn out the way I imagined it would...it actually was a lot harder than I thought it would be. They are super delicate. Also, I have never worked with Royal Icing except to use as snow on Gingerbread houses (how hard is that?). I decided that I really don't like Royal Icing. I had wanted to do this beautiful design with stripes and zig zags but decided for my first time that polk-a-dots were good enough.
You will need for egg:
1 large egg mold (mine is a two piece I got at Michaels, not really a mold, just a fillable egg.
sugar (enough depending on how large your egg is, I had to use about 3 cups for mine)
cookie sheet
figurines (I got mine on clearance at Michaels)
You will need for icing:
powdered sugar
food coloring
egg whites OR meringue powder
decorating bags and tips
Use your mold halves to measure sugar to figure out how much you will need for each egg. You need to mix just enough water to make it like sand for sand castles . . . about 1 tbsp. water for each cup of sugar. Add water and mix with a fork. Do not add too much water.
Pack both halves of the egg firmly with damp sugar. Level off. Place your cardboard on top and invert the egg onto it. Place carefully on the cookie sheet, and slide the egg off the cardboard. Carefully life the plastic mold off the sugar. If you want the finished product to lay flat, make a cut down through the pointed end of the egg about 1/2 an inch from the end with a thin knife. Or if you would like a larger opening, make this 3/4 inch. Leave this piece in place for the time being, as it will keep the end from drying so you can scoop out the opening. If you want your finished product to stand upright (that is how I did mine) use a very small spoon (I used a baby spoon) and VERY CAREFULLY scoop an oval hole on side of egg. (Side, meaning the top of one of the halves) I also carefully shaved off a little on the bottom to make it flat so as to be able to stand up. At this point you can leave the eggs to dry. I cheated, I placed the cookie sheet in my oven on "warm" for about an hour. Wait until you can pick one up in your hand without it collapsing. I broke one of my halves by trying to pick it up too soon and had to start over with that half.
When it is ready to handle, very carefully scoop out the sugar from inside leaving at least 1/4 inch of shell or a little more. You can use the sugar that you scoop out of your first egg to make another egg. Let the hollow shells sit overnight to let them get completely dry or put back in the oven for another 30 minutes or so. Rub the inside with your fingers, to smooth the inside surface a little.
I used this Wilton's recipe for Royal Icing. Or make icing using a couple of egg whites and enough powdered sugar in mixing bowl to form peaks. Separate into small amounts and make several colors, leaving some white to "glue" the two halves of the egg together. Do not make too stiff or it is very hard to work with.
Spread a little icing in the bottom half of the egg, using green icing to use as grass. I then added a little green Easter basket grass (optional) and then set your little figurine inside, pressing it into the icing to secure it. Or you can pipe "grass" inside. This icing will dry very hard, and hold your bunny or whatever in place.
After you secure the bunny (or figurine), spread white icing on top of the bottom half of the egg sparingly. I used a butter knife to spread it on. Match the edges, set the top half onto the bottom half. If the hole looks ragged, don't worry, your icing trim will cover this.
Using a star tip, cover the seam around the egg seams and hole. You can make flowers, bows, zig-zags, polk-a-dots...etc...I wrote the year underneath my peek hole. Do what ever you would like to decorate.
Store in a zip lock bag, in freezer or in a box. They keep for several years.
