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Make Your Own Panoramic Sugar Easter Eggs

Making your own panoramic sugar Easter eggs isn’t difficult, it just takes a little time. But making them with friends or family will create memories that will last even longer than the beautiful eggs.

First decide how big you want your eggs to be. Buy plastic Easter eggs that open to the size you want. They are a bit more difficult to find than the typical plastic eggs.

Gather your ingredients:

• Granulated sugar
• Frosting powder (find this with cake decorating supplies at craft or discount stores)
• confectioner’s sugar
• Cream of tartar (in the spice section of your store)
• Coco (optional – use it for grass in your panoramic scene)
• Food coloring (paste colors are recommended; find them with cake decorating supplies)

Make sure you have these supplies on hand:

• wax paper
• Spoons, mixers and teaspoons
• Icing Decorating Bags
• icing decorating tips
• spatulas
• Mixer with wire whisk

After determining how many eggs you’d like to have at the end of your project, plan on making at least twice that number. Sugar eggs are delicate and not all of them will make it to the end of your project.

make the shells

Mix granulated sugar with a small amount of water, just enough for the sugar to hold together when squeezed into a ball.

Fill one half of a plastic Easter egg with the wet sugar mixture. Make it into wax paper. If the sugar holds together, proceed. If not, try again. If you can’t get the sugar to hold after several tries, add a little water.

Once you’ve successfully poured the sugar onto the wax paper, carefully cut off about 1 1/2 inches from the narrow end. You may need to cut more if you are using very large eggs or less if you are using small eggs. This will form the opening you can look through.

Cut a half circle of wax paper that is about 1/2″ smaller in diameter than the opening. Place it against the sugar and rest something against it to hold the wax paper in place. A stack of pennies should work fine, except with a lot of big eggs.

You will need to wait several hours for the outer shell of the eggs to harden. If you try to pick them up too soon, your eggs will fall apart (but you did more, so this isn’t a problem). If you wait too long, the egg will be too solid and you won’t be able to get the soft sugar out of it.

The amount of time this will take varies depending on the amount of water that initially contained the sugar and the temperature, airflow, and humidity in the room. But think in terms of hours and not minutes.

Once you can hold the eggs without breaking them, remove the soft sugar with a teaspoon, leaving a crust about 3/8″ to 1/2″ thick, perhaps a little thicker for very large eggs.

Let the eggs dry for several more hours. They should be quite difficult before moving on to the next step.

make your scene

While waiting for the shells to dry is a good time to make the figures for your scene. You may have decided to make crosses, chicks, or bunnies out of icing. Or maybe you’ve collected plastic figures that you want to dip in icing to make them look handmade. You can decorate small cookies like teddy bears. Remember that cookies won’t last as long as plain icing decorations.

To make decorations with all the frosting, use the following meringue royal frosting recipe. This type of icing dries hard and lasts a long time. You’ll also be using this type of frosting later to assemble the eggs, so be sure to save some for later or plan on making more.

Royal Icing Meringue

• 3 level tablespoons of meringue powder
• 1 lb. icing sugar, sifted
• 3-1/2 ounces warm water (1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon)
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Mix all the ingredients in the bowl of a mixer. Beat on medium high speed for 7 to 10 minutes. Any fat or oil in the bowl or on any utensil will prevent this frosting recipe from working, so be meticulous. Beat until the frosting is firm enough to hold its shape. As soon as it’s finished, cover the bowl with a damp towel. Keep it covered at all times as it dries and crusts easily.

assemble your eggs

Choose the bottom half of an egg and build your scene on it. Use royal icing in the bottom as “grass”. Just use food coloring to make it green. You may also want to tint some coconut to add an even more grassy touch.

Insert your crosses, bunnies or other decorations. Be sure to orient them towards the opening.

Use white royal icing to “glue” a top in place. Allow the egg to dry before continuing.

Once the egg is dry, use icing with a decorating tip to pipe decorations over the seam and around the opening. You can also add a flower or other design on top.

Allow the eggs to dry overnight before handling them again.

If your egg rolls to one side, use a file to flatten the bottom a bit. Or place a ring of icing on the bottom to help stabilize the egg.