From Calculus to Cupcakes
I’ve seen quite a few photos of Easter eggs dyed with natural dye and decided to try some of my own this year. Looking around the internet, I found quite a bit of different ideas for this, but the directions seemed to vary wildly. From what I read, I needed to soak the eggs for somewhere between 30 seconds and overnight – not exactly specific. The only thing they had in common was the addition of vinegar. Some added salt (a lot or a little) and some did not. So, I basically just decided to pick a few colors and experiment on my own and added vinegar and salt. I was completely surprised by how easy this was and how intense the colors were. The pink and grey/lavender were both a bit streakier than I would like, but I’ve always had that problem with commercial dyes too. I used tumeric for yellow, which turned out great. But, then pink, purple, and blue were a little more challenging. I had read that beets would give you pink, grape juice purple, and red cabbage blue, but I was a bit skeptical because these three all seem to be a similar color. They were all definitely different. The beets gave me a nice pink/red and the red cabbage gave me a nice blue – though it took a while. The grape juice, however, gave me a kind of speckledy grey color, that honestly I don’t recommend, but you can look at the pictures and decide. Obviously, I didn’t try all of these, but About.com has a great list of foods to try and what color they give you here.
Please read the directions before you begin because they don’t all take the same amount of time. And, a note of caution: If you are dying eggs with children, I dyed them while the water was still very hot. Please supervise this well. And, these colors will stain just as badly as artificial color, so watch your hands, clothes, etc.
So, here is what I did.
Yellow:
3 cups
.95 oz. tumeric
1 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsps. white vinegar
Whisk all together in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cool slightly, but immerse eggs while water is still fairly hot. Soak until they reach your desired color. Mine took about 15 minutes. The tumeric does not really dissolve in the water, so once the eggs are dry, you might have to dust the surface off a little with a paper towel.
Pink:
3 medium beets, peeled and coarsely chopped
water to cover
1 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsps. vinegar
Place beets in a saucepan and add water to cover. Stir in salt and vinegar. Bring to a boil and cook until beets are tender. Remove beets. I threw mine away because they were too salty to eat. Cool slightly, but immerse eggs while water is still fairly hot. Soak until they reach your desired color. Mine took about 15 minutes.
Blue:
1/2 head red cabbage, coarsely chopped (The head I used was what I would consider a large head.)
water to cover
1 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsps. vinegar
Place cabbage in a saucepan and add water to cover. Stir in salt and vinegar. Bring to a boil and cook until cabbage is are tender. Remove cabbage. This I saved because although it was salty, I still had another half head, so I going to try and combine them and see if I can make something out of it. Cool slightly, but immerse eggs while water is still fairly hot. Soak until they reach your desired color. Mine took about 2 hours. At first you will think they are not going to change, so be patient.
Grey/Lavender (I don’t really like these, but this is what I did.):
2 cups red grape juice.
1 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsps. white vinegar
Whisk all together in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cool slightly, but immerse eggs while water is still fairly hot. Soak until they reach your desired color. Mine took about an hour. Make sure to let this color dry completely because it will wipe off until it is completely dry.
Awesome! I love how you experimented – I think the grey color is kind of pretty is you have a light white/pink table – maybe paste a few pink flowers on! Love them!