Easter, Bright and BOLD!

So, I don't know about the rest of you, by in my neck of the woods, Spring decided to explode forth way ahead of schedule. Gardening issues that I thought would hold off until well into April have been clamoring for my attention since the beginning of March. I find this first week of April, and the Easter celebrations, a welcome break from all the garden hustle and bustle. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE working in the garden. It gives me a level of release and satisfaction I can't even begin to describe. Just the same, there's something about decorating Easter eggs that fills the creative need in me like nothing else can.

Here are some photos of Easter eggs dyed last night:

I wanna note that the yellow and orange eggs we made were so vibrant, I couldn't get my camera's macro setting to focus on the egg in the foreground, hence the predominantly blue/green/dark colored eggs. The eggs are brilliant and we had about six kids/adults involved in the egg coloring fun.

Last year it had crossed my mind that, if gel dyes are marketed for effectively tinting large quantities of white icing it would stand to reason that these dyes would be incredibly effective in making vibrant eggs. To test my theory to its most extreme extent, I decided to invest in one small tub of black dye gel.  The resulting eggs took my breath away: black being a conglomerate of intense hues, I ended up with each individually dipped egg coming out an extravaganza of blues, purples, magentas and blacks.

So, this year I promised myself I would not surrender to PAAS tablets (sorry, no offense to the childhood memories) nor to the squirt bottles of liquid dye we all find in our local baking section of our grocery store.  This year I was gonna foot the bill (a whopping $8) to buy gel dyes for the purpose of egg dyeing.  The above eggs are the fruits of our labor and experimentation. 

If you'd like to dabble with your own vibrant custom color palette, here's what I did:

*Placed my eggs in rolling boiling water to cook for 15 minutes. 
*Drained the eggs and ran cold water over them for a little bit to make them easy to handle.
*For each color I wanted, in one heat-safe cup, I placed 1 generous Tablespoon of white vinegar, a dollop of gel dye the size of a garbanzo bean and enough boiling hot water that an egg would be fully submerged once placed inside (for me, that was roughly 3/4 c). I stirred until it seemed the gel had sufficiently incorporated into the solution.
*Dye away!  Even the quickest dip in the dye bath will produce a color brighter than any other dye process I've used before now.  Note that the darker deeper colors were made by dipping eggs in multiple often complementary colors and letting them sit for three minutes or more.

Happy dyeing and, much more importantly, a happy and glorious Easter to you!  What a truly wonderful day of celebration...