Marbleized Hard Boiled Eggs

While looking for something semi-crafty today I started looking through one of my Martha Craft books and found a fun idea for dying easter eggs. We are planning on having some friends over for Easter Brunch and I thought these eggs could be decorative as well as edible. Dying easter eggs reminds me of growing up, sitting at the kitchen counter making a mess, and having a blast while doing it. This project turned out to be quick, easy and not as messy as I remembered!

Sadly, I have to admit that I had never made hard boiled eggs before, so I had to educate myself with an online tutorial. Once your eggs are hard boiled you are ready to start coloring them.  To dye eggs you use 1 Tsp of Vinegar, 1 cup of hot water and 10-20 drops of food coloring. If you want them to be a lighter color you leave them in this mixture for 1-3 minutes and for darker, up to 10 minutes.

I decided not to simply dye my eggs but to marbleize them after the original dye job. In a wide, shallow bowl mix 1 tsp of vinegar, 1 cup of water and 20 drops of a different color or shade. Mixture should be 1/2 inch deep. Next add one 1 tsp of olive oil and spin it around in a circular fashion with a fork. Once there is a good swirl, place a dyed egg in the mixture and roll it around the bowl to pick up oils streaks. Remove the egg and gently pat itwith paper towel and let dry.

I love how mine turned out, but there are a couple of things I learned from this first batch. First, I thought I had normal food coloring at home, but apparently I only had neon colors. Ha! Second, I left them in the dye too long with the original dye job, making them darker than I had intended. This proved difficult to marbleize some of the darker eggs. Lessons learned!

Book: Martha Stewart's handmade Holiday Crafts