These dyed Easter are real eggshells that have been coated on the inside with chocolate and stuffed with candy and a small surprise.

Everything I used to decorate the eggs is edible. I used jumbo sized eggs, though this wasn’t necessary. I stuffed them with the smallest things I could find.

I was hoping to try to make my own version of the chocolate filled real eggshells that Martha Stewart created a few years back, but I wanted mine to be more like a Kinder Surprise egg with a toy or small item inside. I also took inspiration from hollow chocolate eggs that contain smaller chocolates and candies, as these make a pleasing rattling noise when you shake them, and I can never wait to find out what is inside.

Go read the whole how-to!

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She’s got a great idea for a simple way to make a very functional Egg Drying Rack. Again. Clever.

And, how to color those eggs using the Ukrainian style technique (Pysanky) is here.

How to make Cake Eggs:

All you need:
Egg shells (Jumbo would yield larger results, but in this case, I thought brown would be pretty.)
Your favorite light in texture cake batter (for these I just used a white cake mix)

Using an icepick or other sharp pointy object, make a hole in the top of each egg shell. Carefully! Then enlarge the hole to about a 1/2 inch in diameter by carefully removing little bits of shell.
Pour out the insides and reserve for your cake batter, and/or other uses. (If you need to separate eggs for your cake batter, like I did, just pour out the whites first into one bowl, then use a toothpick to break up the yolk, and pour it into a separate bowl. Otherwise, just use a toothpick to mix the egg up a bit in the shell, then pour out.

Wash your egg shells.
Looking for more info, I googled and found these instructions, which suggest the egg shells should then be soaked in salty water for 30 minutes. I have no idea if this is necessary, but I decided to try that. That recipe also suggested drizzling a little oil in the shells, but I found that problematic. Since I’m serving these in their shells, I’d just skip that, or try a squirt of non stick spray.

After your eggshells are dry, it’s time to fill and bake them!
A mini muffin tin was the perfect size to hold the eggs upright for filling and baking. If your eggs don’t fit perfectly, you might add salt or sand to the cups to provide stability, or place a little foil in the cups to fill in the space.

Put your cake batter in a piping bag or a plastic baggie with a corner cut off, and pipe batter into egg shells, filling about 2/3 of the way up.

If you’ve overfilled your eggs, you will have batter that comes out the top. So put a sheet pan under your muffin tin to catch any extra that might drip off.

Bake according to the cake directions (temperature) for about 20 minutes (use cupcake directions as a guide, though these will be smaller so may not take as long.) Use the toothpick test to determine doneness.

If your eggs have overflowed, just knock off the excess. Let cool. If you place your eggs in an air tight container or zip bag, any cake on the outside of the eggs will easily wipe off after resting.

Egg cups make the perfect serving dish. Or, serve a set in a clean egg carton! If you want to add a dollop of icing or whipped cream, peel a little of the shell off the top, and decorate as desired. You could also just top the egg with an edible flower, and let the cake be a bit of a surprise!

You could also fancy these up by painting the shells with a little food coloring or similar, after baking!

(thanks to Grieg for helping me with the photos!)

Also, a really cute idea for birds nest easter cookies in the Spotlight today.

One of our guest contributors did a great writeup on how she made her Marshmallow Chicks (commonly known as Peeps). She claims they aren’t very pretty, though, so we’re challenging you to do better! Melissa provides the instructions, plus tips on how to make yours better, over at Foodwhirl!

In addition to the traditional felting techniques that everybody uses (needle & wet-felting, dying my own wool, accenting with tufts of colored wool)  I also use an Airbrush to add shadows & gradients to my pieces.  I’ve found this to be a super easy & fast way to give my felting that little somethin’-somethin’!!

Airbrushing some Chocolate Frosting!!!

Here are all the supplies you need to help paint & shade your Felted Sculptures!!

*Airbrush, Compressor, & bottles
*Watered down Acrylic Paint
*Yummy Felted Cupcakes!!

This is what the cupcakes look like BEFORE any paint has been sprayed. Just plain, white frosting all ready to be transformed into Chocolate!!

I didn’t want to get any over-spray of the brown onto the “cake”, so I put a little paper & masking tape to cover that part. First layer of color is a warm yellow!!

I like to paint in light layers of many different colors. I think this gives the colors more depth instead of just blasting a color onto the wool. Also if you get too much acrylic paint onto the wool, it tends to bleed & get a little crunchy.

Slowly getting darker & darker!! Going from the yellow base to a warm brown.

Starting to look like chocolate with the darker brown!! This could pass as a Milk Chocolate, but I want a darker frosting.

Working with the darkest (almost black) brown to add some dark shadows within the “twirl”.

Yummy Yummy!!! Looking Delicious!! Love the dark shading in the creases!!

Almost done just need….

Cherries On Top!!! Yea! All done!

Thank You Dabble.org for letting me share!!  I hope this tutorial has inspired you to take another look at your chosen medium & maybe think outside the box!  Never feel confined by the “traditional” way of doing things!!

If you are interested in learning more about felting, or seeing some fun Tutorials on the felting process, Please visit my Blog:

FeltedChicken Blog

(I should color last week‘s like this, when I have a chance)

Dabbled

Promote Your Page Too

Over at Roots and Wings, they have a great writeup on a Lego party that they did, and I love all the creative touches!  Pictured right are the party favor boxes, which are really well done.  They also had lego shaped play dough, lego shaped chocolates, and a bunch of other great ideas.  (They even made their own lego molds to facilitate making all the cool stuff!)

Go check out the whole thing!

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Featured on Dabbled? Don’t forget to grab a nifty button!

*I highly recommend Lego Star Wars -The Complete Saga – It’s a great value at less than $20  – buy it through my Amazon link and I’ll get a tiny little portion of money to spend on new craft supplies!

How to Make A Fabric Easter Basket:

My friend Heidi make this way cool Easter Basket – And then was cool enough to write up a how-to, and even provide a pattern for you to make your own!  This is from last year, but I thought it was worth a re-post.

We had a bunch of readers make their own last year… if you make one, be sure to send me a pic!

Make Your Own Easter Basket Tutorial

Creative Egg Dying Ideas

Also from last year, but worth a repeat as the season draws near. Tons of cool ideas on how to creatively dye Easter Eggs!

I pulled together a list of a bunch of great ideas for dying creative easter eggs. Go check them out, and let us know if you try any of them!

12 Creative Ways to Dye Easter Eggs (a photo roundup) plus more egg dying links!

Plus – Here’s a few more Easter Link Roundups you’d probably like..

• Easter Crafty and More Egg Dying Links

• More Easter Crafty Links