Here we are–another successful breakfast party held this morning by my gym buddies, this time a surprise wedding shower for one of our instructors and another fellow body pumper.
The couple thought we were celebrating end of school, and when they came in we gave the bride a baseball cap with a veil and the groom a top hat. They sportingly wore them throughout class. Oooo ooo baby!
We’re a tight knit group and have done several lovely breakfast parties. Many of us are health conscious eaters and some of us are cautious about eating too much sugar. Our delicious spread included homemade yogurt with choices of fruit, nuts and granola toppings, gluten free snacks, stuffed dates, strawberry oat bars and rice crispies with watermelon marshmallows. We also had exotic cream of wheat upma, a south Indian breakfast food, yum.
I love doing eggs, ‘cos they are good for you! Having decorated eggs for previous parties, I thought of bride and groom eggs. Krista, my friend, said half jokingly I could use tripe for the veil. That’s only two eggs to decorate. How to make the other eggs exciting? Maybe I could have bridesmaid eggs. A love boat egg dish? Or a three-tier wedding cake style egg presentation?
I googled eggs–wedding, bride, groom, love, heart–and found this wonderful heart idea. You can mold freshly cooked and peeled hard boiled eggs into heart shape.
Here are my eggs with a commitment–my “I Do!” couple. They sat in the midst of heart shaped eggs.
HOW TO MAKE HEART SHAPED EGGS
Cook a dozen hard boiled eggs. (Tips for Cooking Hard Boiled Eggs here.)
While eggs are being cooked, fold some cardboard accordion style to form four Vs. I used a box from a recent online order. Cut the cardboard into two sets of Vs so it’s easier to work with. Have on hand some rubber bands and chopsticks (disposable is perfect).
When eggs are cooked, peel and dry them. They should be fairly fresh from cooking. They don’t need to be hot but you want the eggs to be still soft enough to mold. Wrap three eggs in parchment paper. Do this with a second roll of three eggs.
.
Place them in the folded cardboard and squeeze the eggs, making sure the V is defined. Hold them in place in the cardboard with rubber bands. Then place a chopstick across the eggs and press down to create that dip. Hold everything together with more rubber bands. Repeat and do the same for second lot of six eggs.
I chilled them for about eight hours before I unwrapped them and sliced each egg crosswise. Because I prepared the dish the night before I was worried the eggs would spring back into its original round but the heart shape stayed. <3!!
DECORATING THE EGGS
The groom’s top hat was easy. I searched an olive bar for the largest black olive for the brim and the smallest olive for the crown. I sliced a circle off the largest pitted olive. The smallest olive I got for the crown turned out to be unpitted but as I was carving out the stone to create the crown, I found out that if I kept the stone, I could slip it right through the hole of the brim to make the hat and secure the stone into the egg!
I’ve used olives before. Much better than peppercorns, they are great for the eyes because they are yummier. I cut the olive in half and use a straw to stab out mini cylinders a bunch at a time if I am making many eyes. Instead of squeezing them out, my husband blew them out of the straw. To put the eyes in the egg, carve out a small hole with the straw and place the olive in it. It’s a perfect fit. You can use green or black olives. Place the eyes closer together to make them cuter. Olive was also used for the bow tie! Carrots for lips.
What did I use for the veil? I considered going to a cake decorating store to find something edible but at the back of my mind I thought that snow fungus might work. My concern was if it was white enough. In my pantry I have snow fungus, which I use in Chinese sweet soup. (Recipe for Snow Fungus Sweet Soup here. ) So I soaked some and you can see the result in the picture below, left. Stuck it down with toothpick. Nice and frilly! I used it also for the train and dress.
