This Homemade Easter egg dye uses gel food coloring to make beautiful eggs in vibrant colors. It is a great alternative to a store-bought kit and is a fun way to make beautiful Easter eggs.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Food dye Easter eggs are an easy way to make bright colored dyed eggs at home.
This is one of the best ways to get the whole family involved including small kids since the dye solution is edible and taste-safe.
If you’re looking for more Easter recipes, try our Easter Jello Shots.
Recipe Ingredients
Hard-Boiled Eggs – Make sure you leave the shell on. Also, make sure to white eggs because brown eggs will not show a bright color. Try this Air Fryer Hard Boiled Eggs recipe for quick boiled eggs.
Gel Food Coloring – While you can use regular food coloring, gel food coloring is more concentrated giving you a better overall color.
Water – I typically like to use room temperature water but you can also use cold water. Using hot water (not boiling water) can help make the colors more vibrant.
Vinegar – I like using distilled white vinegar
You will also need:
Paper towel – You will need lots of paper towels or newspaper to cover any surface you want protected from the food dye. It also makes for easy cleanup.
Cups – You will want a cup for each color.
Spoons – You can use a regular metal spoon but a slotted spoon tends to work best to drop and remove the eggs from the colored cups of water.
Storage Information
- Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 4 days. Remove shell prior to consuming.
Helpful Tips
- If you heat the colors for about a minute in the microwave, it will result in a richer color, but it’s not required to get a gorgeous look.
- Some colors such as orange and yellow may need more dye to get a good color. It will also depend on the brand of dye as some aren’t as good as others. I always do test eggs and add more dye if need be. It will stir right in.
- This type of dying really pulls out the natural art on the shell of each egg. It’s very pretty.
- You can use liquid dye as well, about 10 drops will do. No oil based dyes and no icing colors as they won’t mix into your water.
- You can mix food colors to make different colors. McCormick has a great chart on food dye color combinations.
- You can use this with brown or farm fresh eggs as well. The colors tend to turn out darker or richer and are very pretty.
- Some gel dyes, especially if they’re getting older, may cause “floaties” in the water. This is ok and actually makes for a firework dye look on the eggs and is super cool. So, don’t throw it out if it happens, you’ll miss out!
- You can eat these eggs and use them in an Easter Egg Hunt or in Easter baskets.
- Once eggs are dry, you can decorate and draw pictures on these using a white crayon.
How to Make Food Color Dyed Eggs
Step One: Make your hard boiled eggs and make sure they are dry. Next, choose your colors and have a cup ready for each color.
Step Two: Place your water and vinegar into each cup. Stir well.
Step Three: Add food coloring into each cup. You can start small and add more drops of food coloring until you reach your desired color.
Step Four: Place eggs into the cups of colored water. Allow them to sit for several minutes until you reach your desired color (leave in longer for darker colors)
Step Five: Remove eggs and allow to dry on a paper towel.
Step Six: Enjoy!
Food Color Dyed Eggs
Ingredients
- Hard Boiled Eggs
- ½ Teaspoon Gel Food Dye per color
- 1 Cup Water per color
- 1 Tablespoon Vinegar per color
- 10- Ounce Minimum Cup per color
Instructions
- Choose your colors and have a glass for each color.
- Place 1 cup water and 1 tablespoon vinegar in each cup.
- Add a ½ teaspoon of food dye to each color, one color to a cup.
- Stir the cups and start placing your eggs in the cups. Using spoons makes it easier to get the eggs in and out. Have paper towels nearby to rest the eggs on to dry.
- Within 1 minute, your eggs will be dyed. The longer you leave the eggs in the dye, the darker they will get.
- Let the eggs rest on paper towels to dry for at least 5 minutes. Enjoy!