I first saw these Easter eggs in the shops a couple of years ago and when I was offered some duck eggs last week by my lovely riding instructor Sara Ussher, I decided to make them for my family (another occasion when I wished my parents had stuck to two kids). They were also Pinterest inspired like many of my slightly crazy, over the top, recent projects.
A simple idea – the original Easter egg mould, is…..an egg of course. Simply empty out the eggs original contents and replace with chocolate. Easy.
Yeah. It is easy, but it’s time consuming, especially with duck eggs which are at least twice as big as chickens eggs.
Martha Stewart has pretty comprehensive instructions that I won’t repeat here. I don’t think you need to make it as complicated as that though. Simply make a hole in the bottom of the egg with a pin, and then make a bit bigger and a bit bigger (gently), until it’s about the size of of a 5p piece. Then you need to stick something in the egg to break up the yolk (I used a cake skewer). Wriggle it about a bit and then the egg will come out of the hole when held upside down. It comes out s l o w l y.
I then followed good old Martha’s instructions to sterilise the eggs (boil the shells with a tablespoon of vinegar for 10 mins – start with cold water).
Here they are drying after being sterilised:
Ready to fill with chocolate:
Melt the chocolate and put in a piping bag. These duck eggs are BIG – each one holds about 175 grams of chocolate. Much more than a hollow Easter egg. I didn’t bother tempering the chocolate, far too much hassle and (in my opinion) unnecessary.
Leave to set, putting them in the fridge speeds it up a bit.
Next, decoration. I didn’t have any brown paint but wanted a natural look, so I used some instant coffee mixed with a little bit of water to make a thickish dye, and used a paintbrush to splat it onto the shells.
Once dry I stuck stickers over the holes to make them look finished off. I’ve got a Cath Kidston sticker book which had some perfect little round stickers, but you could use any stickers that cover the hole.
Finished. A basket of surprise eggs. Pretty, natural and rustic. I’ll let you know how they taste.
Happy Easter!
