A few months ago I was totally wasting time avoiding piles of laundry and dishes browsing Tastespotting for official food blog research purposes when my then 4 year old son walked into my office. He took one look at the computer screen and exclaimed, “Mom! Is that a dinosaur egg??!” What he had spied was actually a Chinese Tea Egg. When brined in a mix of tea, and spices the crackly designs look (to me) like something you’d see on a Halloween themed table, but I took a mental note to make these with fun colors when Easter came around and we could pretend they were Dinosaur eggs. My boys thought they were SO cool.
First thing you need is a bunch of hard boiled eggs. Click here for a how-to on boiling the perfect egg!
After the eggs are cooked, cooled, and dry, gently tap them on the counter top. You want to create little cracks all over the egg. It’s okay if a few small pieces of shell fall off, but try to avoid breaking large chunks off.
You should just have small tiny cracks all over. In fact after you make a few taps on the counter, you can even gently squeeze the egg in your hand to crack the shell.
Use liquid food coloring to tint your water, and plop your eggs in.
For some reason, my Ikea kids cups are always my egg-dying cups. We wanted a few different colors so we put a single egg in each cup. This part isn’t rocket science. No specific measurements, just, ya know…do it. I let my kids squeeze in the food coloring so I’m guessing there are about 847 drops in each cup. If you want to be exact.
Let them sit in the fridge for several hours, or overnight. I’ve actually only let them sit overnight, so I can’t tell you how many hours will do it if you don’t leave them in all night. Somehow that makes it more fun too. My kids get all excited to wake up in the morning and crack their eggs open.
Remove the eggs from the water, rinse them off (so you don’t color your hands, um, not that I’ve done that…) and gently remove the shells, revealing the dino designs inside!
Isn’t it strange how that one egg shell didn’t absorb any color but the inside is colored?? Weirdness. Also I have no idea how those other ones have lines around them.
That red one freaked my husband out. He said it looked “veiny”. Can’t say I disagree.
He then promptly mocked my egg-to-dinosaur size ratio in the lovely diorama I set up on our back porch. Whatever. Maybe they’re all just hanging around wondering where the ginormous dinosaur is that produced an egg bigger than all of them. Use your imagination people!
Pretty sure this purple one is my favorite. I have shoes that color. Love.
They’re sort of weird and awesome all at the same time. Like me.
Emphasis on the awesome.
Now you’re probably wondering what to do with a bunch of neon eggs.
Why, have a dinosaur egg salad sandwich of course!
Here’s my favorite recipe for Egg Salad. I had to close my eyes before taking a bite because the technicolor factor tripped me out, but my kids sure thought it was rad. And that of course was the whole point, so plus one for Team Mom. Woot woot! So try this one with the kiddos – they’ll be excited when you’re in the middle of egg dying and you tell them to crack the eggs. Or better yet, crack some and don’t tell them- wouldn’t that be a fun surprise?!
Questions & Reviews
Totally making these for Easter! So fun. I did this by accident a few years ago, but now I can do it on purpose and it will be cool.
Love the idea. It looks so fun, I’ll have to try it. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for the perfect boiled egg link, i have been meaning to look up how to boil them properly, we have had our very own hens the past month and they don’t seem to boil properly (they turn out more poached than boiled, its kinda weird, but happy to have fresh eggs i try not to mind) so hopefully with your recipe i will have success!
Sara, LOL!!! I’m new to your blog, but it’s so much better than a recipe blog because of stuff you guys write like: “totally wasting time avoiding piles of laundry and dishes.” That is precisely how I found your blog! Congrats on the book, thanks for the recipes (we love the Brazilian ones especially), and thanks for making me smile!
I’ve never peeled eggs and then put them back in the fridge…is there a shorter shelf life??
My son would think these were “AMAZING!”
I absolutely love reading your blog…never fails to make me smile and give me inspiration!! Thanks for all the work the two of you put into it!
Just mentioned this post on my blog. Even though my “kid” is 26 years old, we’ll be doing this for Easter!!
http://onthepondfarm.blogspot.com/2011/04/coloring-brown-eggs.html
These would be so fun for making deviled eggs, wouldn’t they? And I have some grandsons who all over dinosaurs these days!
Those eggs are darling, and your pictures are adorable. Your kids are so lucky to have such a fun mommy!
This is the solution to dyeing brown eggs. Great idea for me with all my fresh brown eggs. Oh! A reminder – you really don’t want to use the fresh eggs. A pain to peel and I bet the membrane won’t let the dye work as well. I’ve got some eggs “aging” as we speak!
Thanks, Sara.
Oh my… We just had a dino themed birthday for my son last Saturday… He will die to have these on Easter! 🙂 Might have to do them early too… (already have some hard boiled eggs in the fridge!) What an awesome Idea! Thanks for sharing with us!
Really neat looking!
(And I think you mean Ikea cups, not Idea cups)
:o)
My son saw this post as I was reading it and screamed “COOL!! Mom we HAVE to make these NOW!”
It’s been a tradition in my house since I was little to make Creamed Eggs on Toast for Easter with all of our hard boiled eggs we had dyed and hid. You can find the recipe on my blog if you have never heard of it. But don’t laugh it’s nothing compared to your blog;) Just a fun place to drop my recipes!! We love how the colors from the eggs make a rainbow of color in our sauce. My own kids love it so much we have it pretty much 3-4x’s a month:)
Love this idea though…my son would LOVE to make them look like dino eggs!!!!!
These are so awesome. I don’t know whether to use them for Easter or my daughter’s dinosaur party in May. (Maybe both — why not?)
I love these pictures, Sara! I think it is just beyond awesome that you spent the time setting up a dinos in the background, haha. How fun! 🙂
When you leave them out overnight do you keep them refrigerated? I am assuming so but just wanted to check?
in the fridge Jessica 🙂
These look so cool!
You mentioned water and food coloring. I am guessing you don’t do the whole vinegar, water, coloring method? Just water with food coloring? I am also trying to figure out how we can do these for hiding? Any suggestions?
Nope, no vinegar. Vinegar helps the color adhere to the shells and that’s not what we’re going for here. Plus I didn’t want the eggs to taste like it.
I’m not sure there’s a way to hide these!
Can’t wait to try these with my Primary Activity Day Girls.
I also have some Jell-o molds that are egg shaped and have some fun recipes to go with them. I think this year I’ll try putting a clean plastic dino in the middle of them (thanks to your 4 yr old’s creativity).
LOVE these!! I think even my teenagers would love these. 🙂 Adding it to my To-Do at Eastertime List. Thanks!
🙂 – that last pic is the best! Love the purple egg – wow. I’ve never thought to leave the eggs in the food coloring that long. Will definitely try it this year.
These are so freakin’ cute! I can’t wait until my nephew is older so I can make dino eggs with him!
It’s a beautiful eggs.. I LOVE IT.. congratulation for the great color
Love the idea, but I have to tell you, I love reading your posts even more. You are so fun and funny and normal-sounding (can’t tell for sure, but…you know, you sound like a real person)!! Thanks!
Rad is right!
That is an awesome idea! I teach Kindergarten and I have to admitt…I want to do it with them. Mostly for selfish reasons…because I love dying eggs!
Are the cups from IKEA? I seriously am going to have to go home and make some tonight. I have neon food coloring! I think the best part is that you are not wasting eggs!
Thanks for sharing!
After being dropped on the table and floor countless times, our Easter eggs look like that every year. LOL Fun stuff though! 🙂
For some odd reason the red ones make me think of Spiderman. Weird I know.
I just thought of something…these would make for some trippy deviled eggs!
That is such an awesome idea. My girls are so excited to make those at Easter time!
These are super cool, but the egg salad does look whack…kinda like purple ketchup.
Ha! You need to clarify dear. It doesn’t LOOK like purple ketchup, it looks unnatural and therefore makes you uncomfortable the same way purple ketchup does, haha
SO cool! My Boys will adore these. My two year old calls them dinosnaurs. What’s even cooler is that I can still do this with our farm fresh eggs!