Yield: 18 extra-large egg cupcakes
Dyed Eggs Ingredients:
- 18 extra large white eggs (Only three will get used in the cake. The rest are just used for their shells.)
- 1/2 cup of water for every egg color you want
- 1 tablespoon vinegar for every egg color you want
- Food coloring (as many colors as you'd like)
Cupcake Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- a pinch of salt
- 2 eggs (from above)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Cream Cheese "Yolk" Ingredients:
- 1 egg (from above)
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/3 cup sugar
- Gold and yellow food coloring
Dyed Eggs Directions
-
Carefully poke a small hole in the top of each egg. I found that the easiest way to do this was to use the tip of a corkscrew bottle opener
.
- Once you have poked tiny holes, peel back the edges of the holes to expand them a bit. The holes need to be large enough to fit the tip of a piping bag inside. You can always make the holes larger when you are ready to pipe so err on the smaller side during this step.
- Turn each egg upside-down and dump out its contents. Keep the contents of two eggs separate for the cake recipe and one egg separate for the cream cheese "yolks". If you plan on using the other eggs for baking, it might be helpful to store them in small plastic containers in groups of two (otherwise it will be hard for you to later tell how much of your big bowl is two eggs). You may wonder why there is a thermometer in the photo. I used the tip of the thermometer to help get all of the egg out of the shell.
- Rinse the insides of the eggs out thoroughly over the sink. Then, immerse them in saltwater for thirty minutes. At first, I couldn't get them to sink. I realize that this is probably obvious to most of you, but in case anyone else is science-challenged, I thought I would share Jonathan's tip that the eggs need to be filled with the saltwater in order to sink.
- Rinse the egg shells in cold water to remove the salt.
- For each color that you want, prepare cups with water, vinegar, and six drops of food coloring. Stir and add more color until you like the way the color looks.
- Dunk eggs one at a time into the cups of color and leave them in for a minute. Have a look at the resulting shell color and dunk again if you want the color to be more intense.
- Remove from the dye and place eggs hole side down on a paper towel to dry.
Cupcake Directions (I used my favorite sour cream cupcake recipe with lemon extract instead of vanilla):
- Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix eggs and sugar until light and creamy.
- Add the butter and lemon extract and mix until fully integrated.
- Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Add the sour cream and mix until smooth.
Cream Cheese "Yolk" Directions:
- Mix cream cheese, egg, and sugar until smooth.
- Add food coloring until the mixture looks yolk-colored. I found that this was best achieved by using mostly gold with just a touch of yellow for some brightness.
Egg Filling and Baking Directions
- Place the prepared egg shells into a cupcake tin. Use aluminum foil to help them stand upright.
- Load the cake batter and the "yolk" into piping bags fitted with small tips. Make sure that the tips can fit all of the way inside of the egg holes. If they can't, gradually egg-spand the holes until the tips fit.
- Fill your eggs about 1/4 full with batter.
- Top the batter with "yolk" until the eggs are about 1/2 full.
- Top the "yolk" with more batter until the eggs are about 3/4 full. This is the tricky part. If you underfill the eggs, you won't have complete cake eggs inside when you crack them after baking. If you overfill the eggs, cake will flow out of the eggs during baking. I found that it was best to let the cake overflow out of the top of the egg slightly and then to simply pick it off (eat it) and clean the shell with a damp towel before serving. Unfortunately, this technique may remove some of the dye.
- Bake the eggs at 350 F for 20 minutes.
- Let cool, crack, and eat!