Victorian Chocolate Eggs; a Different Take on a Sugar Egg
Introduction: Victorian Chocolate Eggs; a Different Take on a Sugar Egg
About a month ago I stumbled upon this post "My Grandma's Victorian Sugar Eggs and Royal Icing Decorations" by <PERSON>. I thought they were so cute! I had never seen any before and I loved them.
However, there was one thing that I didn't love about them. She has a tutorial on her blog there where she tells you how to make them, but when I read the ingredients I thought, "That doesn't sound very yummy. I don't think I would want to eat that."
Very cute, but practically inedible. Not my kind of thing. I think that food can be pretty or beautiful, but it should still be something you would actually want to eat. So I decided to try my own take on the sugar eggs and make them with chocolate instead.
Supplies
1. Latex water balloons, washed (just run them under the sink and dry them off on a towel)
2. Balloon pump
3. Milk chocolate chips
4. Small bowl for mixing
5. Spoon for mixing
6. Scissors or a sewing pin
7. Small knife
8. Parchment paper
9. Masking tape (optional, not pictured)
10. Royal Icing*
11. Piping tips (use whichever ones you want - I am using a small star tip and a small writing tip
12. Piping bag with coupler OR you can use the old ziplock bag method
13. Scribe tool. Not necessary, but nice for adjusting stray icing.
14. Food coloring (optional; depends on design)
15. 305
Small bowls for mixing
16. Spoons for mixing
17. Sprinkles, optional.
* I am using <PERSON> royal icing recipe, which can be found here. I am not going to walk you through how to make royal icing because there are a bajillion tutorials out there on the internet or in books.
Step 1: Royal Icing Transfers
So now we are gonna make royal icing transfers. These are actually really addicting to make and really fun.
I spread out a length of parchment paper. How much you want depends on how many transfers you will be making; and I will be making a ton of them. I can't leave my transfers just sitting where I am working, so I have put my parchment paper inside a flat baking pan so I can move them without disturbing the icing.
Next, I drew some little pictures of snowmen and Christmas trees. These will be my "stencils" that I will draw my icing over top of. I slide the sheet under the parchment paper. You can see the designs through the parchment paper so that you can draw with the icing using your original drawings as a guide. You can also freehand if you want to or draw your own designs, but if you don't, I have included a sheet you can printout with a few designs I made that you can use freely.
I added masking tape to the corners to try to keep the sheet from sliding, but it didn't really end up being that necessary.
With the food coloring, I mix a bit of green icing for the Christmas trees. I am also going to use green icing for the snowmen hats, scarves, and faces.
TIP: I am using a piping bag, but you could use a ziplock bag. Cut a small bit of one of the corners off, insert the piping tip and push it out of the bag about halfway. Take some masking tape and tape around where the cut edge of the bag meets the piping tip. This will reinforce the bag. Still be careful with it and keep an eye on it while you pipe because ziplock bags are notorious for splitting.
With the writing tip or a small round tip, simply trace the design onto the parchment paper with the icing. You can use the scribe tool to swirl the icing around and fill the design. Don't make your icing layer too thin - it will crack. Your royal icing should be around flood consistency, that is it will not hold peaks and will smooth itself out when piped.
After I pipe the snowman's body, I switch to green to pipe the hat, scarf, and face. That snowmen looks a little evil, but the next ones were better.
I do the same for the Christmas trees, but I added flat, round sprinkles on mine to be lights. You can skip that, or you could add edible glitter, or coarse sugar, whatever you want.
Leave the transfers to dry for at least one day. When they are dry, they should easily pop off with the help of the scribe tool or a toothpick. Just get under the edge and carefully push/pop it up and it should come off easily. 744