Decorate Cooked Eggs at Christmas for Fun and Edible Art
Bring the joy of coloring eggs to a wonderful holiday- Christmas! You, your family, and special guests will enjoy this simple and fast way to decorate cooked eggs at Christmas. The cute eggs are edible and eatable for breakfast, snacks, salads, or other meals. They are more nutritious than sweets.Plus they are gluten free and recommended as a part of most diets. Egg whites work too and have little to no fat in them. They can be as cute as cookies!
Do you have fun each year drawing or coloring ornaments on paper for wall, window, or Christmas tree decorations? To decorate cooked eggs at Christmas the concept is the same, except the drawing and coloring gets transferred to the cooked eggs.
Lets start off with food safety in mind!
First, use food safe tools such as toothpicks or paint brushes that are designed to be food safe. That way there is no worry about unsafe chemicals leaching into the designs you or your children will create. Check your cooking equipment stash for candy and cookie decorating brushes.
Second, cook the eggs or egg whites completely and before their carton expiration dates.
Third, use liquid food coloring and paper that is safe for food contact. The best food safe paper is butcher paper or freezer wrap (the paper side). If you are a cake decorator, rice or wafer paper will work well too. Check out our resource section for a list of the tools and products that we use.
Other food safe paper that will work, but has less intensive color transfer is parchment paper.
Cook some eggs!
Eggourmet® is all about Easy Boiling ™! We recommend using this method to prepare your eggs. The recipe or instructions for Easy Boil™ can be found at this page of our website. This method uses silicone pans to shape the eggs. To get results that mimic a hard-cooked egg, use a silicone pan that is less than 3” in diameter and can hold more than ¼ cup of liquid then cook in it using our Easy Boil ™ method. Our Eggourmet® brand of silicone pans are recommended, but not required. You can order them on this product page. Cook a big batch of eggs. I personally enjoy decorating the eggs and can decorate 4 or more eggs myself. And it’s okay. The eggs will store and taste great for at least 4 days. You could use them for snacks, salads, or breakfast sandwiches. The cute holiday cheer will be appreciated.
Gather your artists together!
Wash hands. Remember, someone is going to eat this egg, so keep it clean!
Lay out the food coloring tubes, squeeze bottles, or paste containers, plates to mix the colors on, brushes, and water in cups to clean them with. Food safe writing pens and markers work great and can be found at grocery, craft, and department stores. Give each person a fresh square of food safe paper. Use the plates to place the food coloring on. Do not use the coloring directly from the containers.
There are several ways to make the art to decorate eggs at Christmas. Draw free hand, trace the art, or use a cake or cupcake printable from decorating suppliers or stores. Use images or cake toppers that are about 2 1/2” in diameter. The round Eggourmet® pans have the most available art space. If you use the assorted Eggourmet® pans, each shape is different. We have a free printable file that includes the dimensions of each Eggourmet® mold size. It does require an email opt in to get a free printable set. (The set will change with the seasons of the year.)
What to do if I am Not Using Silicone Molds!
Make smaller art designs that will fit the curve of a boiled egg you have cooked and peeled. If your designs are large, cut them into smaller pieces and place them on the egg like a puzzle. Wording can be cut and applied too.
Draw directly on the egg with food coloring using tooth picks, chop sticks, or food safe paint brushes. Clean your brush between colors.
Start Drawing or Tracing!
Use the food markers or toothpicks dipped in food coloring to free hand images on the paper. Good ideas are trees, mittens, stars, bells, snow-men, snow-women, balls, mistletoe, or other simple silhouettes. You are creating an image that when turned over and placed on the egg will be a “mirror” image of what you have traced.
Or find your favorite Christmas images in coloring books, Christmas gift tags, wrapping paper, magazines, or cookbooks. You could even use a small cookie cutter for a template. Place the food safe paper over the images and trace with the food marker/writer or wet you food safe paint brush with the liquid food coloring of your choice. Trace the design onto the paper and color in the images or leave as an outline or silhouette.
Or, if you want words such as “Merry Christmas” or “Happy New Year”, you will need to print the words out, turn the page over, and trace the writing backwards. When you turn it over the wording will appear correctly on the egg.
Or use an edible printed cake or cupcake topper. The wafer paper or frosting sheet they are printed on is edible. If you place the topper on the egg, it will not bleed or run as quickly. If you turn the topper over and place it directly on the egg, the image will transfer. It will not be as vivid as the topper. But it will work and you won’t have the edible paper on the egg. Some like wafer paper, some don’t.
The eggs work best if they are slightly damp but not wet.
Why Not to Write on the Eggs with the Food Markers!
Food Safety! The proteins in the eggs will get stuck in the food markers, which are porous. Bacteria grows in proteins. If you are saving the markers to use on other food such as cookies or making more eggs, DO NOT color directly on the eggs with the markers. The other reason why not, is that the eggs are wet. Some markers absorb the water and will not work as well.
Why Not to Use the Paint Brushes directly on the Eggs!
Because, you can’t undo the color once it is on the egg. If you draw on paper and don’t like it, you don’t have to use it. Simply make a new drawing. However, if you love to free hand, go for it and enjoy! It will work!
Decorate the Eggs!
When you are done with the art work cut around it so that you have a small piece of decorated paper to work with. Hold it above the flat side of the egg surface and center it above the area you want it. Gently lay it down on the egg. DO not slide the paper. Tap it gently with your finger on the back side to remove any air bubbles. Make sure it is touching the egg everywhere you have art work. For rice or wafer paper, peel it up after 30 seconds. The rice paper absorbs the moisture from the egg and will be hard to get off. If you are using freezer or butcher paper wait one minute for good color transfer. The freezer or butcher paper will not stick.
Set the Colors with Melted Butter or Oils
The images are always the best at the time you peel the paper up. If you want them to look their best, create the artwork the night before. Apply the transfers before you serve the eggs, or allow your guests to apply their own designs.
Overnight the eggs will absorb the coloring and it will “bleed” or “run” into the surrounding egg parts. A way to minimize the color spread or “run” is to spray or brush butter or oil across the egg after the transfer or color is applied. It will stop most of the color “bleed”.
Enjoy the Eggs!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you Decorate Cooked Eggs at Christmas every year!
