For just about anyone who grew up dying Easter Eggs, the smell of Easter somehow mixes with the scent of vinegar. We all remember plopping the fizzy tablets into the cup full of the strong smelling stuff, and waiting patiently for the tablet to disappear. As I became a mom, suddenly in charge of the project, it became my job to remember to stock up on vinegar and fizzy tablets when the Easter season rolled around every year.
Then this year, everything changed in our house. Besides the fact that I have very few willing egg dyers left (the teens abandoned me to hit the ski slopes one last time), I also had a different smell wafting through the kitchen. As my youngest and I prepared our counter top for the big event, we were greeted by a strong, fruity smell. This year we skipped the fizzy tablets, and used Kool-Aid drink mix to color our eggs.
I’d been seeing posts about this idea on Pinterest and other assorted craft sites, and thought it looked too easy to be true. Really? Just Kool-Aid and water? Why had we been paying way too much money all these years for overpriced fizzy tablets, if the only ingredient we really needed was in the cabinet, next to the the iced tea and lemonade mix?
But we jumped in, ready to prove this myth busted.
We filled our cups with simple, room temperature, water (just enough to cover the egg). We stirred in one packet of Kool-Aid. Then we waited.
But instead of waiting a quarter to a half of an hour for some bright colors to appear, we saw the magic working in less than ten minutes. We couldn’t believe it could be this easy!
Sure enough, this was our very first batch. Less than 15 minutes after we dropped those eggs into the water, they came out shimmering and bright. Oh, and the kitchen still smelled fruity and yummy, not like my laundry room, which is the only other place I regularly use vinegar.
The only glitch I could find was that some of the eggs came out with little splotches. Since I love a natural looking product, I loved the spots, but the perfectionists in the group might have issue with them.
I’ve heard rumors (that I believe) that using dark colored drink mix (grape, black cherry) results in pretty bleak looking eggs. If black eggs are your thing, go for it. If you prefer the more spring like colors, stick to cherry, pink lemonade, lemon-lime, mango-pineapple…you get the idea.
Fellow GeekMom, Amy Kraft, went a step further and did some fun decorating techniques. Here’s what happens when you wrap rubber bands around the egg before you dye it. Pretty cool.
Give it a try for yourself. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised just how easy (and fruity smelling!) dying eggs can be. If you need more inspiration, be sure to check out the extensive post that GeekMom Laura Grace put together this week. It’s full of great ideas for every skill level and interest.
I am SO DOING THIS!!!! Thanks for the great idea!
I’m never going back to the vinegar mixes again. Kool-Aid works soooo much better. I’m with you – I like the splotches.
I’m going to do this too! Well, if I can convince my teen to join me. Oh, to heck with it, I’ll do it by myself if I have to.
I am SO going to do this! Thank you very much! 🙂
A very interesting article. Thank you! My kids are in their 30’s now. There are so many things I wish we could have done back then . . .
Does anyone know if the koolaid affects the flavor of the eggs? I don’t think I could eat a strawberry flavored egg…
My egg lady gave me a couple of goose eggs (3 X the size of a chicken egg) and I used cherry kool aid with the rubber band detail. It looks fabulous! Perfect for an egg hunt! Thank you-this was low stress and very joyful to do.