Easter Egg Dye Fun
Nothing says Spring or Easter, like making a huge mess dying eggs with your kids. We used to buy the kits at the store and dip eggs, but then the craze of dying eggs in shaving cream hit. I’ve always been a little leery of dipping my food in soap before eating it. Plus, I HATE the smell of foam shaving cream. So, we went the way of whipped topping (you know, Cool Whip!). It is a much tastier way to dye your eggs. Plus, it is a food, so you don’t have to worry about non-food chemicals on your hard-boiled eggs.
Starting Your Easter Eggs
Ok, so let’s get started. You will, of course have to hard boil the eggs. Some people will also tell you to soak the eggs in vinegar before dying, but I don’t find this step necessary. It is supposed to make the colors more vibrant if you do soak them, but I think they turn out fine without.
You will also need to make sure you have whipped topping and GEL food coloring. Gel food coloring is a must if you want to get any sort of vibrancy to your eggs. Other helpful tools include tooth picks (unless you have the squeeze gel food coloring-which I recommend), and spoons to push the eggs around. I also find it helpful to have an extra egg carton.
Colorful Hands Your Kids Will Love
After prepping the eggs and ensuring you have all of your supplies, you will want to prep the pan by spreading the whipped topping. Next, use a tooth pick or squeeze the gel food coloring in random blobs around the whipped topping. Once you have everything prepped, call the kids up. Make sure they push up their sleeves, and maybe don’t put them in an outfit you care a whole lot about. Also, if you are worried about staining your counter or table, do it outside or place a barrier (newspaper, vinyl tablecloth, etc.) under the egg dying area.
Let the kids take turns rolling the eggs in the whipped topping to fully coat the eggs. Carefully place the goopy eggs in your extra egg carton. You will want to let the eggs sit with the dyed topping on them for at least 30 minutes. After the desired amount of rest time, rinse the eggs under cool water to reveal some cool marbled dyed eggs. Your hands are also likely to be very festive at this point. And unless you like a festive mouth too, I would skip licking your fingers. I may have ended up with pink teeth and a purple and green tongue!
Craft with Us
Head over to our Activities and Crafts page for more ideas on what you and your family can do together. You can also comment below, tweet us, or share your thoughts over on Facebook to let us know how your Easter eggs turned out. We’d love to hear about your family fun!
Now, what to do with all those hard boiled eggs…
