Holidays

How to Dye Easter Eggs And Keep Them From Cracking

It’s that time once again to dye eggs for Easter and here are a few tips to help keep them from cracking and make them easy to dye. Did you know that Americans dye and decorate more than 180 million eggs during the Easter season each year. First, you must gather your supplies to dye Easter Eggs. You will need fresh eggs, Distilled white vinegar, food coloring or Paas color tabs, saucepan, water, spoons, and small dishes or cups. Distilled white vinegar is easily found in most grocery, big box, and drug stores around the country and is very affordable at around $1.34 for a 16-ounce bottle.

How to Dye Hard Boiled Eggs for Easter

You can also prepare hard-cooked eggs in the oven instead of boiling them.

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2. Place uncooked eggs into muffin tins.

3. Cook for 30 minutes.

4. While the eggs are cooking, fill a large bowl with cold water.

5. When the eggs are done, remove them using a pot holder and transfer the eggs, one at a time, to the cold water in the bowl. Be careful because the eggs will be very hot.

6. Wait 10 minutes and remove the eggs from the water.

Eggs cooked in the oven will have brown spots on the egg shells where the eggs were in contact with the hot metal from the muffin tin. The discoloration may fade in the water but it may also leave marks on white eggs.

Tips for Preventing Cracked Hard-Boiled Eggs

To help make your Easter egg colors vivid and bright, add one Paas color tablet or 3 drops of food coloring and three tablespoons of Distilled White vinegar to a mixing cup. Once the tablet has dissolved (no waiting for food coloring), add 1/2 cup of water and gently stir.

To help keep hard-boiled eggs from cracking, add two tablespoons of Heinz Distilled white vinegar per quart of water before placing the eggs in the pot to cook. By adding vinegar the shells will also peel off faster and easier when you are ready to eat them after egg hunting is over.

Do not over cook the eggs.

Quickly cool the eggs after cooking by running them under cold water.

Wait until the boiled eggs have cooled and refrigerate eggs in their shells until they are ready to use.

Tip Source: Heinz Vinegar.

Easy Kids Easter Crafts Ideas

Grab your paints, brushes, scissors, tape, glue, paper and other craft supplies because we’re making Easter Crafts for with the kiddos. Spring is when we look to nature for new things, birds are chirping, the sun is out, buds are on the trees, and flowers are starting to blooms. Bunnies are hopping and Easter is on the way.

Cupcake Liner Spring Flowers

This project is easy enough for a 5 year old. You will need some cupcake liners, construction paper, popsicle stickers and glue. If you have gemstone embellishments that will make these flowers extra special.

Easter Friends Treat Bags

This project requires pastel cardstock and a color printer. PrintWorks sells cardstock and they also provide the free template for this project. Once you print the template all you do is cut out the shapes and glue. It’s a super easy kids Easter craft indeed!

Paper Plate Flower Child Easter Bunny

You’ll need a paper plate, colorful tissue paper, paints and construction paper to create your your own paper plate flower child Easter bunny.

Egg Carton Spring Easter Chicks Craft

These excessively charming egg carton Easter chicks are the ideal Kids Easter craft. You’ll need some egg cartons, colorful paints, a black marker, construction paper, and colorful feathers to make these spring chicks.

Paper Easter Eggs — **Source: Little Miss Celebration**

3-D Stand-up Easter Eggs

Grab some scissors to cut out egg shapes from cardstock, fold each in half, use your craft glue and glue two of the folded eggs together. Keep adding paper eggs until it take shape and can stand on it’s own. Glue a bow to the top and you’re finished.

No-Sew Sock Bunnies

You can use the one sock that is left in the dryer that doesn’t have a match or buy a cheap pair of socks at the dollar store for this Kids Easter Craft. Fill one sock with rice or polyfil, tie clear rubbers bands to create the head and bod. Cut the top of the sock in half to create ears and then snip off the corners to make the ears slightly rounded. Then decorate your sock bunny with googly eyes, a bow and felt pieces for the nose, teeth and bunny tummy.

Stained Glass Tissue Paper Easter Suncatcher

This Easter Craft looks expensive and difficult but it is actually cheap and easy. The kit comes with black foam cutouts and tissue paper. The pieces of tissue paper is glued with a glue stick to fill in the window panes and create the stained glass effect.

25 Easy Easter Kids Craft — Source: One Little Project

Foam Cup Easter Bunnies

These foam cup Easter bunnies are stinking cute. Once Easter is over, you can use them as a planter. Have the kids add some potting soil and seeds and watch them grow. One Little Project has the step-by-step instructions for this craft.

Easy Easter Bunny Headband Craft

Oriental Trading has a free bunny template for you to download to make this Easter Kids craft. With a cute button nose and white cording for whiskers, you can make this up in a jif. You’ll also need googly eyes and paper.

How to Make Chocolate Easter Eggs

Centuries ago, eggs were given as gifts to mark the season of the equinox in ancient Egypt. This egg gift-giving tradition is later used by the Christians to represent Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead, a symbol of rebirth and new life. This tradition evolved in France and Germany in the 1800s, as people started to exchange chocolate eggs.

Easter chocolate eggs are everybody’s favorite treat during the Lenten season. Did you know that rather than spending tons of money purchasing chocolate eggs, you can make and decorate your own Easter chocolate egg are home?

How to Make Chocolate Easter Eggs

Supplies Needed:

plastic egg molds
double boiler
mixing spoon
large block of chocolate
small party favor toys or candy such as M&Ms

For a hollow chocolate egg, you need to use a plastic egg mold. These plastic molds are fairly cheap and come in a variety of sizes. You will also need a double boiler.

Want to give it a surprising twist? Put on a handful of sweets or small toys inside the egg shells before you join the two egg shell halves together. Want to make it colorful? Melt white chocolate and mix a little food coloring.

Melt Chocolate Block

Melt a large block of chocolate slowly over low heat in a double boiler. Melting it on a regular saucepan or melting it too quickly will cause the chocolate to burn or develop an unpleasant texture, making it very difficult to work with and spoil the taste.

For kitchens without a double boiler, you can do the slow melting by placing a few inches of water in the bottom of a large saucepan, and then place the smaller saucepan (containing the chocolate) inside. Don’t cover the saucepan. Heat and simmer the smaller saucepan; this will melt the chocolate slowly and safely, giving it a shiny and lovely texture, without spoiling the taste of the chocolate. However, you need to work faster and stir the chocolate before it starts to set.

Fill Molds with Chocolate

Pour the melted chocolate in both halves of the mold. Cover and place the mold together as evenly as possible. Spread the chocolate evenly inside of each mold half by slightly tapping and shaking the mold halves. You can also use a spoon to smooth the chocolate around.

You can use silicone egg molds instead of plastic egg molds.

Add Party Favor Toys

Put the chocolate-filled molds inside the fridge. Wait until the chocolate hardens completely.

If you are adding small party favor toys to your chocolate eggs, fill one half of the mold and then let them sit in the refrigerator for about 10 to 15 minutes so the chocolate is slightly cooled. Then press the toy into the warm chocolate and continue adding chocolate until the mold is completely filled.

If you are worried that the toy or candy may melt inside of the egg, use a regular plastic Easter egg and put the candy or toy inside of that and then press the plastic egg inside of your larger chocolate egg. You will have to use quite a large egg mold to do it this way.

Seal the Egg with Chocolate

Wait until the chocolate is completely cooled, about an hour. Remove the two halves of the mold gently. Brush the edges of each halves using melted chocolate, and then slightly press the two halves of egg together to make one whole egg.

Be Creative, Use Your Imagination

Make your chocolate eggs look more beautiful and attractive for the kids by decorating its shells. You can drip some white chocolate to the mold before you pour the melted chocolate. You can also use hokey-pokey variety rather than plain or milk chocolate.

Making chocolate Easter eggs is an amazing opportunity to be creative and use your imagination to make a lovely seasonal treats for your whole family and loved ones. The popularity of Easter chocolate recipes also makes it a lucrative business opportunity.

Easy Chocolate Easter Recipes

Chocolate and Easter always go together. Kids look forward to them and mothers love preparing them. But when you give away chocolate Easter eggs to kids on a yearly basis, it can be challenging to come up with creative ideas and recipes to excite them with the sweet treats! Thus, you can experiment with a few recipe ideas for your Easter chocolates to ensure that the kids will be excited to open up their baskets.

Photo Credit: bbcgoodfood.com

Chocolate Almond Biscotti Recipe

The first recipe that you can try is fairly simple

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
butter
3/4 cup almonds
one cup of sugar
2 eggs
2 yolks
one tablespoon of water
almond liqueur
choice bits
baking cocoa

Instructions:

1. Start by pre-heating the oven to 320 degree.

2. Combine all of the dry ingredients.

3. Flatten up the dough into a pan and wrap it with plastic.

4. Put the flour mixture into the freezer for at least an hour before cutting it into thick slices and placing it into the baking tray. Make sure to grease the tray so the cookies won’t stick after baking.

5. Bake for approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

Photo Credit: foodonthefood.com

Creamy Chocolate Fudge Recipe

You will be needing only three ingredients to prepare this recipe

Ingredients:

1 lb. of cooking chocolate
one can of condensed milk
one teaspoon of vanilla extract
chocolate foil wrapped Easter eggs or small Cadbury eggs

Instructions:

1. Combine all of these ingredients in a saucepan, which is placed above another pan filled with boiling water.

2. Keep stirring the chocolate and thoroughly melted.

3. Pour the fudge into a separate container and line it up with baking paper.

4. Store inside the refrigerator and it should be easy to cut them into smaller pieces once cooled.

Photo Source: bakers-corner.com.au

If you want to stick with the traditional Easter egg basket when preparing your recipe, here is a great idea to try

Chocolate Crackle Egg Baskets

Aside from ensuring that your kids will enjoy eating them, they will also have fun preparing this recipe.

Ingredients:

Mars Bars
Rice Bubbles (approx. 3 cups)
a couple teaspoons of cocoa powder
3 tablespoons of thin cream
up to 2 dozen small eggs

Instructions:

1. Place your cup cake paper cases into a tray.

2. Chop up your Mars Bars into a bowl then mix the cocoa powder and cream into it.

3. Turn the microwave on medium and let the mixture sit there for about a minute. Make sure that the Mars Bars have completely melted or it has attained a rich but creamy consistency.

4. Add the rice puffs into the mixture and put them into the individual paper cups. Leave a hole in the center so you can place the eggs in it.

Keep this in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.

Feel free to add your own unique twist to these chocolate Easter recipes. It will be more fun if you can get the kids involved in the preparation so they will come to appreciate those giveaways even more.

Free Easter and Spring Clip Art

Are you working on Spring and Easter craft or greeting card projects and need some free clip art? Here is a nice selection of clip art you can use. Just right-click on a picture to save it to your computer.