Make Sugar Easter Eggs

Sugar eggs can be decorative or edible treats to make at Easter. This article looks at making three styles of sugar based eggs: the more complex decorative fondant types and also some edible styles of sugar eggs.

Ingredients

Decorative gum paste or fondant method: Note: While sugar eggs made of gum paste will probably break your teeth if you try to eat them, as they are so hard, they look like beautiful sculpted porcelain and make excellent decorations. Use the second fondant method or the sugar method for edible versions.

  • Approx 250g (8.18 oz) gum paste or stiff fondant (often called plastic icing)
  • Approx 50g (1.76 oz) of royal icing

Both of these are available from most cake decorating stores and some supermarkets.

Fondant method 2 (an edible sugar egg and alternative suggestion):

  • Approx. 250g (8.81 oz) plastic icing fondant or a thick icing (such as marzipan / almond paste) of a plasticine consistency
  • Approx. 100g (3.5 oz) melted chocolate (white, milk or dark is fine)

Sugar method :

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3 1/2 teaspoons water
  • Food coloring (paste is best)

Steps

Decorative gum paste or fondant method

  1. Decide on how you wish to Pipe Decorations on Cake the egg. Some decorative styles will require additional sculpting tools. If so, these tools are very similar to clay sculpting tools, but are made of food-safe plastic. They can be purchased from the cake decorating supplier as well.



    • Read up on the decorating with fondant, as the tools will often have simple instructions that give you an idea of the different effects you can make with the tool on the sugar egg.
  2. Prepare the workspace. Your tools, hands and surfaces should be spotless to prevent dust from contaminating the Make Basic Fondant for Candies, as any marks will make it appear dirty.
  3. To make a simple fondant egg, take the fondant and roll it out to 5mm (0.19") thick. This thickness should be consistent across the fondant that will be used for the Easter egg.

  4. If you wish to color the fondant, either buy it colored or knead food coloring into the fondant until the color is consistent throughout it. For rich colors, look for color pastes rather than liquid types, as too much liquid will make the fondant too soft to form the egg shape. Read "How to Color Fondant" for more information.



    • Note that by kneading it so it is not consistent, you can achieve a marble effect, but be aware that this takes a lot of practice and technique to make it look attractive rather than just messy.
  5. Prepare the Easter egg molds. Clean and thoroughly dry the egg mold and gently dust it with a tiny amount of cornflour to prevent sticking.



  6. Press the fondant gently into the Easter egg molds. Trim the edges so they are as neat and flat as possible. In practice, this is just like lining a pie tray with pastry. Repeat for each Easter egg being made –- two halves for each whole sugar egg; the amount will depend on your mold size.

  7. Allow the eggs to dry until completely set. Tap the sides gently and listen to the sound it makes -- if it sounds hollow or like ceramic then it is sufficiently dried.
    • Once dried, the egg half should tip out easily. If it sticks, it's not fully dried yet, so give it a little more time. Measure Humidity should be avoided.
  8. Place the two halves together to check for a good fit. Hold the halves together and look for any large gaps or rough areas. Don't worry too much about the smaller gaps, as most can be filled with royal icing, but large gaps over 5mm (0.19") will be much harder to disguise (see tips section).
    • If you're making more than one, try different halves together to get the optimal fit between all halves.
  9. Glue the two sides using royal icing. Place the royal icing into a piping bag. Pipe right around the edge of each egg half, removing anything the dribbles off the edge. Then, press the egg halves together gently and remove excess icing that oozes out.
    • Remember, the smoother the fit, the better the end result. Allow the eggs to rest and dry; you can put the egg back into one side of the molds to act as a support.



    • If you wanted to hang the sugar eggs, insert a suitable small stainless steel hook or a loop of ribbon into the icing seal at the top of the egg while the icing is still wet. Larger eggs require hooks with internal supports to share the weight, so only use ribbon for very small sugar eggs.
    • If you wanted to include a toy or a surprise inside the egg, add it at this stage, and then seal it up.
  10. Decorate the sugar eggs. When dry, pipe small decorative shells or small balls evenly across the seal to disguise it. Doing this will act as a frame to any decorative additions that you may want to use. It will also strengthen the hook or ribbon loop.



  11. At this stage, the eggs are finished as a simple decoration. If you wish to decorate them further, allow them to fully dry for another 24 hours, then try some of the following suggestions:
    • Pipe words or a picture onto the eggs.
    • Using a very clean small drill, carve a "window" hole or pattern into the dried fondant.
    • Paint using food coloring. Liquids resemble watercolors and pastes resemble oil/acrylic paints.
    • Using a glue made of icing thinned with a little water or pasteurized egg white (it should reach a thin, paste-like consistency), Decoupage and Antique Paper a photo or paper on. Small paper cake decorations featuring chicks, bunnies, spring themes, etc., are all ideal. As this can add to the drying time it's better to make these eggs well in advance.
    • Use ribbons or other decorative add-ons.
  12. Use the sugar eggs as a decoration and/or gifts. Your completed eggs can be used as a table centerpiece, as a gift, decoration or as a symbolic gift at baby showers. They can last for decades if stored well!

Fondant Method 2

These are more often smaller eggs and used as edible confections, which is where a chocolate egg has a soft fondant center. These are best made the same day or the day prior to eating.

  1. Gather the fondant and knead it until it becomes smooth. If you wish to flavor the fondant, you can knead in flavorings to taste (such as Buy Cocoa Powder, instant coffee powder, custard powder, etc).



  2. Shape the balls of fondant into solid egg shapes about the size of a large grape and keep it covered with cling film. You can press the fondant into small egg molds (dusted with cornflour as per above fondant egg method) for a neat finish, but this does take much longer as you will need to have two sides of the mold to press the fondant into shape. Cover it with cling film and refrigerate until firm (approximately 1-2 hours).
  3. Using a small skewer, fork or toothpick, dip the eggs into the cooled melted chocolate and twirl or turn the egg very gently in the air above the bowl to coat. Allow the excess to drip off. Keep twirling the egg gently until it has just set.



    • The cold fondant and the cooler melted chocolate means it will set faster, but if the chocolate is too cold, it will provide a really thick coating. It is recommended to have the chocolate warm enough to give a thin coating just to cover.
  4. When the chocolate has set, it will no longer be as glossy and a thin coating will not take long at all. Place onto a tray lined with baking parchment and store in a cool place. If you quickly dip and then place the egg directly on a tray, the chocolate will run and set flat on one side and will not look as neat.

    • These can be decorated when chocolate is still soft by rolling them in crushed toasted nuts or dessicated coconut (or even dusted with cocoa powder or grated chocolate). Alternatively, when they are cold, you can also pipe decorations as per the previous method if desired, or cover with gold or silver leaf. If you wish to go further, you can double dip into a different colored chocolate by melting white chocolate with a little powdered food coloring.



  5. Alternate Method: If soft fondant is not to your household's taste, buy small ordinary hollow chocolate Easter eggs and prepare some buttercream icing from one of the recipes in or according to your own recipe, (marshmallow is another good filling). Carefully carve a small hole on the base of the egg using a sharp knife or a warmed skewer large enough to fit a piping nozzle into. Fill a piping bag or a large syringe with buttercream and fill the egg until full and then seal with a little melted chocolate to plug the hole.

    • Skilled artisans can 3/4 fill the egg with white buttercream, then pipe the remainder with a yellow buttercream to make an egg white and yolk.
    • The buttercream eggs can be messy things to eat, but chocolate and buttercream is usually win-win (except for for the diet...). For adult-only eggs, a little Make Raspberry Liqueur added to the cream is a popular touch.
    • These are best made the same day that they are eaten.

Sugar method

This method uses plain sugar to make the sugar egg from scratch.

  1. Assemble the ingredients as outlined above in the "sugar method" ingredients section above.
  2. Mix the sugar and the water in a large bowl. The best method is to add all the sugar first and add the water gradually, stirring it in each time. Less is best because you only want the sugar to be wet enough to stick together, not too wet or it won't hold it's shape in the mold.
  3. Prepare the egg molds. Clean them and sprinkle a little cornflour to prevent sticking.

  4. Press the sugar mixture into the egg molds. Make sure the sugar mixture is pressed to an even thickness across the mold, about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} (6.35mm to 12.7mm) thick. Don't make it any thicker or it will be too hard to eat and there won't be room inside it to make the egg hollow.
  5. Flatten the edge tops of the egg halves while they're sitting in the mold. This is to ensure that they will fit together with ease. Leave them to dry for 24 hours at least. As with the fondant eggs, when they're dry they should slip out of the mold easily.
  6. Join the eggs together and decorate them as outlined in one of the previous methods.



Tips

  • When putting two halves of the Easter egg fondant together, if you have cracks/unevenness larger than 5mm, add some more fondant and allow it to dry before proceeding.
  • You can buy sugar Easter egg kits if preferred.
  • You cannot make dried eggs any thinner or any other shape, so be sure you're happy with the thickness and shape before letting the eggs dry.
  • The smoother the fit, the better the end result. Allow the eggs to rest and dry; you can put the egg back into one side of the molds to act as a support.
  • To remove any roughness preventing an even join, you may need to gently grate the edges to grind them down. To do this, use a fine nutmeg grater. Just be aware that grinding the sides down will affect the final shape and is a last resort!

Warnings

  • Sugar Easter eggs are not suitable for babies or toddlers, or any child who doesn't know how to to eat hard candy without difficulty. This doesn't mean they can't admire them from afar!
  • If using egg whites as a glue, always try to get the pasteurized egg whites available in grocery stores.

Things You'll Need

  • Piping bag
  • Small bowl (or large bowl for the sugar method)
  • Rolling pin (first method)
  • Stirring spoon (second method)
  • Egg molds (your choice of size, remembering that smaller molds are fiddlier than larger ones)
  • Cornflour - it works best to seal a little in a small cloth like a pouch and use that to dust the mold

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

You may like

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Make_Sugar_Easter_Eggs&oldid=358723"