Sweet Stuff!...

Hi Girls!

I was vacuuming the dinning room yesterday when I glanced into the china cabinet,  and a little Easter-time-post light bulb went off!!!  I had to hurry because it's almost Easter,  but if you really, really hurry, you can do this too!

See that sugar egg sitting there?  I made that about 13 years ago!  I know, I can't believe it's that old either, but aside from the flowers fading a little bit, it's lasted, sitting right there in my cabinet, all this time!

 

They're easy to do, and they make the sweetest Easter gifts all wrapped up in clear cellophane with some swirly-curly ribbons hanging down .

 

Okay, here's what you need to make a sugar egg. :)

 

 An egg mold.  The same type you'd use to make a chocolate egg. 

Some candy sugar decorations

2 cups of regular white sugar, (more for a larger sized egg like the big one I made years ago, which measures 6" across)

 2 teaspoons of water for each 1 cup of sugar

Some strong cardboard

 

For the royal icing, you need 3 tablespoons of meringue powder

6 tablespoons of water

1 pound of powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar

a couple of drops of green food coloring

A pastry bag for decorating

 

Here we go...  Preheat your oven to 170°.  

Into a large bowl,  put 2 cups of white sugar.  

Add 4 teaspoons of water and with your fingers mix really well until all the sugar is a little damp.  

Spoon the sugar into both sides of your egg mold, packing it in by pressing firmly.  

With a knife, scrap away any sugar that's sitting higher than the edge of the mold.

Place a piece of cardboard over one egg half and carefully flip it over, just like you do at the beach when you're making a sand castle with a pail full of damp sand, and gently remove the egg mold.  Do the same with the other egg half also.  Notice there is a top and bottom to each egg.  The bottom is a bit flat so the egg can sit nicely.

Place both of these egg halves (cardboards too!) onto a cookie sheet and bake for about a half hour.  Don't forget to set your timer!

 

When the egg comes out of the oven it won't be very hot,  so you can pick it right up and get to work.  

With a teaspoon and starting in the center of the bottom half of your egg, gently scrap away the still damp sugar from the middle of the egg.  The outer part of the egg has now dried out and hardened from it's little bake in the oven, and what you want to do is carefully scoop out the center until you have a nice hollowed out egg that you can fill with cute goodies later on.   Do the same with the top half.

 

After you finish your hollowing, take a sharp paring knife and carve out an opening which will become the peep hole, but be careful with this part.  The second egg I intended to make cracked during this stage! :(

Next, place the top of the egg onto the bottom so you can measure the opening you just carved with the knife.  With a pencil draw a half circle on the top half so it mirrors what you just cut from the bottom, and carve out that piece also.  This way your peep hole will be perfect.

 

Your sugar egg is now ready for decorating...the fun part!

Following the directions on the meringue powder container, mix up your royal icing.  Add a couple drops of green food coloring, and fill your pastry bag. 

  

First pipe some icing into the bottom half of your egg.  

If your icing isn't stiff enough, like mine was here, your decorations will sink!  Don't worry, just empty your pastry bag back into the mixing bowl and add a little more powdered sugar to stiffen it up.  I would have done it over but time was an issue, so please don't mind that my little bunny looks like she's sinking in green quicksand!

 

After you're icing is piped in, add whatever sugar decorations you'd like...bunnies, flowers, chicks...whatever.  Then add a thin line of icing onto the edge of the bottom part of your egg and place the top of the egg onto the bottom.

 

That line of icing sort of glues the two sides of the egg together.  Not too much because you don't want your "glue line" to stand out on the inside of the egg...like mine is doing here! Remember, I'm in a hurry to get this post up so there's no time for do-overs! ;)

Next,  pipe some squiggles all around the egg, covering the center seam.  

Then pipe some more squiggles around the peep hole.  Finally, finish by piping a blob of icing onto the top of the egg.  (You girls who know how to make pretty leaves, now is the time to do your magic!)  Plop some sugar roses on top,  and you're done!  

For an extra sparkly touch, I like to sprinkle a dusting of super fine glitter over and into the egg.  Sooo pretty!

 

Before I make my next egg, I will definitely watch a video on how to make icing leaves and better squiggles.  These eggs are pretty, but they can be really beautiful if you actually know what you're doing with a pastry bag!

 Picture a few in the center of the table near a vase of daffodils...or a little sugar egg at each place setting...or in a pretty basket with some jelly beans and a chocolate bunny.  You don't have to hollow them out.  You can leave smaller eggs solid and just decorate the outsides...and in a dry place, they'll last for years!

 

Okay sweeties, if you're celebrating Easter, I hope you have a lovely, eat-all-the-chocolate-you-want- without-guilt ... kind of a day!

See you soon!

xo

         Paulette