While dyeing Easter eggs is one of my all-time favorite DIY projects, I approach it with more and more unease every year. Because even though I've been transforming eggs into every color of the rainbow since I was a kid, I've yet to score a perfect specimen.
I’ve tried every trick in the book. I’ve lowered my hard-boiled egg into the dye with a spoon, only for it to slip off, plummeting to the bottom of the bowl—making for an unsightly mottling of dye distribution on a single-toned egg, or a messy blur when I was going for neat stripes. Or, in years when my egg doesn't slip, the spoon leaves an awkward dimple mark behind. When I was growing up, my mother would create makeshift gloves out of plastic bags so we could freely dip our eggs by-hand, but the dye would often seep through the plastic and stain our fingers in 15 different shades. (Which is no longer quite as fun when I have a meeting the next day.)
But this year, I’m not only looking forward to decorating my Easter eggs, I’m actually confident they’ll be totally Insta-worthy. Because, thanks to furious Google-ing, I recently learned how to create a beautiful Easter egg without any mess or stress—and it starts with a whisk.
You see, the spokes of an average-sized balloon whisk can act like a cage for an egg, holding it in place. Unless you’re working with uncharacteristically large eggs—or a super small whisk—the space in the middle of the spokes is generally big enough to cradle it upright without leaving unwanted marks. Plus, since whisks typically have long handles, you avoid getting dye all over your hands. Simply push a hard-boiled egg through the spokes, lower the whisk into a bowl of dye, and you’re ready to go.
In my recent trials of this trick, I’ve been amazed by how well it works. When I’m done, I let my eggs dry for about five minutes before removing them from the spokes. My whisk’s flexible, silicone spokes make it easy to add and remove eggs, but metal spokes would work just as well. Regardless of the material, stick with a balloon-shaped whisk.
My only qualm with the whisk method? I wish I’d learned about it sooner.
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Written by: Kelsey Mulvey
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