How to dye Easter eggs using vegetable dye

Ever wondered how to dye Easter eggs? I have a thing about blue – my favourite tone would have to be duck egg blue. I recently googled duck eggs to see if they were blue (yes I know, I was not aware of the colour of the eggs). What I found was that ducks can lay a variety of coloured eggs from white to blue to green.

I can remember as kids “blowing” eggs – the process whereby you make a hole in the top and the bottom and blow like crazy through the top hole to force the egg contents out the bottom and you are left with an empty egg shell – all in one piece. This is how I made these eggs – you can just use hard boiled eggs if you want. I started off the hole by using a little magnet that is always on my fridge – an egg piercer – this handy gadget pierces the shell of the egg with a perfect little hole. I pierced the top and the bottom of the egg and using a needle chipped a slightly bigger hole out the bottom hole to help expel the contents. All that you need to do is blow like crazy and the egg white and yolk will come out the bottom. Rinse the eggs – I actually found sucking water up into the egg – swishing it around and blowing it out again was the quickest and easiest option.

Once you have all your eggs emptied and cleaned make your dye. Place four cups of chopped red cabbage into a large pot and cover with 3cm of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

Drain the cabbage water – KEEP the water and throw away the now bleached cabbage.

Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of salt to the mixture. Do not be alarmed the mixture darkens and goes bright pink/purple!!! Place the eggs into the cabbage water and watch the magic happen. After 30 minutes the eggs will be a light blue colour – amazing!!! The longer you leave the eggs in the mixture the darker they get. It really is like a science experiment watching the purple water turn something blue.

I really struggled to get the eggs to sink in the water. It was a real battle until I discovered the joy of the glass bottle and empty feta container. I add the eggs into the bottle/ container and filled the bottle/ container with the cabbage water – of course, the eggs floated. I put the lid on the bottle and the container (make sure the liquid is all the way to the top) and then I flipped the bottles upside down.

Once your eggs have reached your desired colour – let them dry off. Take an old toothbrush and dip it in the gold paint. Making sure you have protective clothes and lots of old paper/ plastic around – run your finger along the toothbrush flicking up the paint onto the egg creating little gold dots. Leave them dry. You could also use the eggs as name tags by painting names on the eggs.

Have fun using these eggs as Easter decorations.

Images: Lauren Kim Photography

Let's get social

Instagram: @lovilee_za
Twitter: @lovilee_za
Facebook: @lovileeblog
or subscribe to never miss out on any new articles in this link.