How To Dye Easter Eggs with Food Color
Wondering how to dye Easter Eggs with food color? You don’t have to buy the Easter Egg kits from the grocery store to have gorgeous, pastel colored Easter Eggs for your holiday table.
I love how rich and beautiful the colors turn out on these eggs. They are so vibrant! And because you’re using your own food coloring, you can mix and match to make so many different hues.
Other Ways to Decorate and Dye Easter Eggs
What You’ll Need:
- Hard Boiled Eggs
- Food dyes
- Vinegar
- Glass cups (one for each color)
- Spoons
- Paper towel
How To Boil Eggs for Easter Eggs
There are 2 foolproof ways of making perfect hard boiled eggs for Easter Eggs:
Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
Air Fryer Hard Boiled Eggs
Why are they perfect? Because the eggs come out perfectly every single time, and have much less chance of cracking or breaking while they cook. Plus, it’s easy! You don’t have to stand near the stove. Just set the timer and come back to remove your eggs.
What Kind of Food Coloring is Best For Easter Eggs?
When making Easter Eggs, gel food dye works best. You can try using the food color drops from the grocery store, but they are far less concentrated and your colors won’t come out as vibrant. I prefer Wilton gel dyes.
To keep from dyeing your fingers, use a small spoon or a toothpick to scoop gel from the small containers – try to avoid getting it on your hands, or you’ll be rainbow-colored for a few days.
You’ll need about 1/2 tsp of each color, and you can mix them together to make your own hues as well.
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DIY Orange Coconut Sugar Scrub
DIY Strawberry Lemonade Sugar Scrub
Homemade Lemon Lime Sugar Scrub
Tips and Recipe Notes
- Heat your prepared cups of color in the microwave for about a minute each to get even richer colors. You don’t have to do this – either way, your eggs will look beautiful!
- Some colors, such as orange and yellow, may need more dye to get a good color.
- Your colors will saturate based on the quality of the dye you use. More expensive dyes have more pigment in them and will result in darker, richer colors.
- If you want a richer color, just add more dye! It will stir right into the mixture.
- You can use liquid dye as well for less saturated colors. Use at least 10 drops.
- Don’t use oil-based dyes – they won’t mix in!
- You can use this with brown or farm-fresh eggs as well. The colors tend to turn out darker or richer and are very pretty but may take longer to set. Yellows and oranges won’t show up well.
- Some gel dyes, especially if they’re getting older, may cause “floaties” in the water. This is ok and actually makes for a firework dye look on the eggs and is super cool. So, don’t throw it out if it happens, you’ll miss out!
Can I Eat These Easter Eggs?
Technically, you can eat Easter Eggs! But you’ll need to make them, then return them to the fridge within 2 hours of the time they were done cooking. You’ll be able to store them in the fridge for up to 7 days.
If you get cracks in your eggs, don’t eat them, since the food dye mixture will have seeped into the eggs through the cracks.
How Do I Store Easter Eggs?
You can keep Easter Eggs out on the table or use them in decorating if you’d like! However, don’t plan to eat them. After they’ve been out of the fridge for more than 2 hours, they’re no longer safe to consume. After you’re done enjoying how they look, toss them out!
More Yummy Easter Recipes You’ll Enjoy
Since you’re here, you might as while give these delicious Easter treats a try!
Instant Pot Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs
Delicious Easter Cupcakes Recipe (You NEED To Make!)
Easter Sugar Cookies with Jelly Beans
The Easiest Hot Cross Buns
Rice Krispies Easter Nests
How To Dye Easter Eggs
Using food colors is such a fun and easy way to dye easter eggs to your favorite color!
Ingredients
- Boiled Eggs (as many as you want)
- ½ Teaspoon Gel Food Dye (per color)
- 1 Cup Water (per color)
- 1 Tablespoon Vinegar (per color)
- 10-Ounce Minimum Cup (per color)
- Paper Towels (optional)
- Spoons (optional)
Instructions
- Choose your colors and have a glass for each color.
- Place 1 cup water and 1 tablespoon vinegar in each cup.
- Add a ½ teaspoon of food dye to each color, one color to a cup.
- Stir the cups and start placing your eggs in the cups. Using spoons makes it easier to get the eggs in and out. Have paper towels nearby to rest the eggs on to dry.
- Within 1 minute, your eggs will be dyed. The longer you leave the eggs in the dye, the darker they will get.
- Let the eggs rest on paper towels to dry for at least 5 minutes. Enjoy!
Notes
●If you heat the colors for about a minute in the microwave, it will result in a richer color, but it’s not required to get a gorgeous look.
●Some colors such as orange and yellow may need more dye to get a good color. It will also depend on the brand of dye as some aren’t as good as others. I always do test eggs and add more dye if need be. It will stir right in.
●This type of dying really pulls out the natural art on the shell of each egg. It’s very pretty.
●You can use liquid dye as well, about 10 drops will do. No oil based dyes and no icing colors as they won’t mix into your water.
●You can use this with brown or farm fresh eggs as well. The colors tend to turn out darker or richer and are very pretty.
●Some gel dyes, especially if they’re getting older, may cause “floaties” in the water. This is ok and actually makes for a firework dye look on the eggs and is super cool. So, don’t throw it out if it happens, you’ll miss out!
