I love these panoramic Easter eggs for Easter. My mom used to make them for all of us kids when we were little. We each got our own on Easter. It was always something we looked forward to. Though this isn’t a recipe that is edible (eating it would be a VERY bad idea).. I still wanted to add it to the site because this truly is a family favorite. It has ingredients so it qualifies as a recipe, right?
You are going to love these eggs. My husband and I made these for our date night and we had a blast! It is such a fun family activity that everyone can enjoy. Kids love decorating the inside. They are beautiful decorations to display for Easter and you can save them forever (see tips on how to save them below).
First of all, you need an egg mold. I found these at the grocery store for $3. They are some of the best quality ones I have found and they aren’t even intended to be egg molds! They were actually filled with Snickers and Reeses candies. I love how they have a flat base so the egg will stand easily. They are cheaper than ones you may find in a craft store, plus you get some candy with em! You just can’t lose. Look around and be creative– you will find something! (This makes one full egg)
Don’t add extra water or liquid… that will make it too wet. Just keep stirring (I actually like to mix it together with my hands) until it gets damp. You want the sugar to clump together if you squeeze it in your hand.
Once your sugar mixture is ready, start filling your egg mold. With each scoop, pack down firmly. You want the egg to be smooth, so press down on the sugar to prevent any small gaps or cracks from forming. If you have excess sugar and want to make more eggs, keep it in a bowl and place a damp paper towel directly over the sugar to prevent it from drying out.
Use a metal spatula, or the top of a large knife to carefully scrape across the top of the mold, removing any excess sugar. Your eggs should have a smooth, even top that is the same level as the mold when you are finished.
Place a stiff piece of cardboard directly on the top of the mold. Bracing one hand on the cardboard and the other underneath the mold, quickly flip it upside-down so that the egg halves are now resting on the cardboard. Quickly remove the mold—now you should have two perfect sugar egg halves.
At this point, the egg halves need to dry out a little before you can use them. You can let them sit at room temperature for about 6-7 hours, or you can put them in a very low oven. (If you are impatient like me, you can put them in a 200-degree oven for about 30 minutes or so)
Once the eggs have started to set, they need to be hollowed out. It is important to do this when the outside is hard, but the insides are still soft. Once the egg has fully set, it cannot be reshaped! Pick up the egg half, hold it in the palm of one hand and use a spoon to scrape out the moist sugar (I would have done this in the picture but I couldn’t hold the egg and scrape and take a picture at the same time lol).
Continue to scrape the interior of the egg until you have a sugar shell that is about 1/2-inch thick. You want it to be as thin as possible, while still being sturdy enough to hold together.
Scrape out the interior of the other egg half. CAREFULLY use a serrated knife to slice off the tip of each egg, this will be the hole you look through to see the panorama so make it about the size you would like. Be careful not to apply too much pressure and cause the egg to collapse or crack. Continue to gently whittle/sand away to front of the egg until the two halves match. At this point the eggs need to dry out further before they can be completed. I would recommend letting them dry out overnight. Once the egg halves are dry and very hard, you can decorate the inside with a beautiful Easter scene.
Pipe a small amount of royal icing (click HERE for recipe) into the bottom portion of the egg half. This is to anchor everything else you add. Add a layer of green-tinted coconut or Easter grass, if desired, and press gently to adhere it to the frosting. Add little figurines, pictures, buttons, small candies, or sugar decorations.
It is easiest to add a dab of royal icing to the back or bottom of your decorations to help them stick. Now it is time to glue the two halves of the egg together. Pipe a thin line of royal icing (or you can use a hot glue gun) around the lip of the bottom half of the egg. Press the top half down onto the bottom, making sure that they line up evenly. Run your finger around the seam where the eggs meet to remove any excess frosting. You want to do this right away so that it will not begin to harden into unsightly shapes. Allow the egg to sit for about 30 minutes, until the frosting has hardened enough to move the egg without damaging it.Time to put the finishing touches on your egg! Pipe a decorative border around the seams where the two egg halves were joined together. Also pipe a border around the opening of the window, to better frame the scene inside and to hide any uneven edges.
If you have frosting flowers or other decorations for the outside of the egg, now is the time to put them on. Use a small dab of royal frosting to secure them to the egg. Decorate to your desire with any additional frosting.
Once it has set, your egg is complete! To save it for future Easters, wrap it carefully in paper or plastic and store it in a box in a safe place. Do not refrigerate the egg and do not attempt to eat it! Stored properly, your egg can be saved for years! (Just ask my friend, Abby, she still has hers from when my Mom came to our 2nd grade class and made them).
Thank you for posting this. The family is coming this Sunday for Easter, and I have been racking my brain for a project to keep the kids entertained. This is PERFECT!!!
Where can I buy th little figurines inside of the egg?
We have collected ours over the years at various craft stores. The best ones we have found are at more of the boutique craft stores or ones that sell the vintage figurines. Hope this helps!
I also buy the Easter trees and use the little ornaments inside of mine.
That is a GREAT idea!!!
Thanks for sharing the how-to! When my kids are a little older I'd like to try this.
wow these are so cute! what a fun date night for you guys, yours are both so creative!
Those are adorable. I got one of those when I was little as well, although I don't think that my mom made them. I have always wondered how they were made and put together. THANKS for sharing. I love them.
I just have to say I love your blog!!! After seeing this project I ran to the store so I could make them with my kids. They had so much fun. So thanks for all your great posts.
Thanks for the comments everyone! Miller- I am so glad your kids had a fun time with them! Feel free to take pictures and send them my way!
WHY in the world, would ANYONE, make something out of FOOD items, yet it CAN’T be eaten???? I ALWAYS ate my eggs, the Easter Bunny left me!!!!
I remember getting at least one, when I was young, and it seems to me I ate it, but it didn’t taste very good… that may have been over 70 years ago.
Back in the 60s my Mom made tons of these, all 100% edible. Use candy figures, M&Ms, and jellybeans. Use the royal icing to glue everything together. Once dried, keep it in a ziplock.
Hi i make the ones you can eat…instead of using the egg. you use 4tbs. meringue power,5 lbs. regular sugar, and 6 tbs. warm water. No powdered sugar for the mold….also when i do mine i do not leave the middle of the egg full if you take and press it really good about 1/4 inch thick all around and leave your cutout hole out…i used the same mold you have from walmart. the flat part is where my hole is. then put on cardboard and dry in oven for 10 minutes! And these are Edible.
Hey Chassie, I have been looking everywhere for an edible recipe! Thank you! I have also read elsewhere that you can use “pavlova magic” which is more accessible than meringue powder. Also thank you to the author of the page I can’t wait to try it 😀
Do u have any pics of the ones u have done. Could I share some of u do??
Thanks, I made these eggs years ago from a Wilton kit, but can’t get them anymore. I wanted to make them with my Assistant living ladies for Easter but my egg mold had broke and thanks to you I know what I can use instead. Great Idea.
Thanks, again, Denise
All the pictures from this post are missing! was wondering if it is my computer or the post itself? I am really hoping to make these for my grandbabies this year…thank you for your help!
I will try to dig them up– some of our pictures have been kind of funny lately.
I love this, My Mom, 30 something years ago, got me one with my sons pic inside & I love it!!! Also I got my molds at the Dollar Store!! I do have a question…the element in my stove just exloded sooo I was wondering if, while waiting for replacement piece, with Easter right around the corner any other ideas on drying faster than waiting 6-7 hours on counter? Like toaster oven or microwave I’m open to anything!!! Thanks again for this ” how to”!!!
I was given one of these eggs years ago with a pic of my son in it now I’m trying my hand at it and my oven is on the frits so until I get the new part I was wondering if there was any other way to set the eggs rather than waiting 6-7 hours…any suggestions would be apprieciated !!! Thanks in advance. BTW LOVE your site!!!
thank you so very much for the info. Yours was the only one with complete info in one place. I made these for my kids and their friends 27 years ago and some of them still have theirs. Now I can make them for our 8 (and 1 on the way) grandbabies. I can’t wait to give them their suar eggs
I’m impressed they have lasted 27 years. That is amazing! Thank you for your comment and have fun making them for your grandchildren!
These are so adorable I can’t wait to make them!!! Does anyone know where to buy the little things u put inside the egg? Bunny rabbit, chick ,flower,etc? Thank you!!
I buy Cute Easter cards and cut out the characters and use them in the egg.
How do your sort them? I made my children one 34 years ago. Moved all over the country (Florida, Boston, Missouri) and they kept very well. I kept them in my china cabinet. We moved to Louisiana and I unpacked them and they were fine. I put them on my dining room table and the next morning they were a pile of sugar!! UGH!!! I was devastated!!! I now live in Louisiana and spoke to a Wilton rep and she had now idea what might have happened. So I m wondering how you store them cause I am getting ready to make them for my grandchildren,
Thanks!
I have never have had an issue storing them or transporting them– I have no idea what could have happened! You want to make sure they are in a super dry place with no moisture. I don’t know if this is much help. I will do some research and see if I can figure out what could have caused them to do that.
The average %humidity in South Louisiana in February is in the mid 70s with mid to high 80s occurring regularly in the mornings dropping by the afternoons to the mid 50s. With comfortable temperatures if your air conditioning unit did not run much then your indoor humidity levels may have risen and your eggs simply could not hold together in the extreme humidity.
That’s a bummer. We don’t have a lot of humidity here, I have never thought about that being an issue with these.
Hello, I love this! My Grandma used to make these for us, and I’m going to try to make them for my family in her memory. Would you mind sharing what you used for the decorations in the inside and dots on the flowers on top?
The dots were just little cake decorating “pearls”. The decorations were a mixture of Easter ornaments (for the mini trees), dollhouse miniatures, jelly beans, and buttons. Hope this helps!
I made these years ago for a lady that gave them to her Sunday School class. I piped all the figures that went on the inside. Wilton had molds for the eggs. Large, medium and small. Through the years of moving my molds got cracked and they broke. I wish Wilton still made them. It’s hard to find candy eggs that open long ways. It’s fun though. When I was a kid, they sold large chocolate covered creme eggs with royal icing and would write your name on them. I thought that was the coolest thing. I was with my mom at Woolworths. Good old days!
Where do you buy the cute figurines for inside? I bought molds to make these last year – because I have fond childhood memories of them – and could not find anything to put in them. Would love some advice!
I mostly just used “miniatrues” found by the miniature dollhouse section of the craft store. That is where I found the bunnies and ducks. I also used buttons and miniature tree Easter ornaments (also from the craft store). Oh and for the easter “eggs” I just used jelly beans 🙂
Thank you!
For the figures inside, Walmart has small suckers that have bunnies, chickens and eggs, they are about inch tall, I cut the sticks as close as I could to the bottom and stuck them into the icing “grass” worked out good . My 14 year old nieces had fun with this project, thanks all who shared they would keep for years, the girls are going to try to keep theirs.
I read about people keeping these sugar eggs for years. and I gotta ask. Aren’t you worried they’ll draw bugs? I really love these and remember them from when I was a kid but only my older siblings got them, and I don’t think Mom made them. Too late to ask her now as she’s been gone 12 years, but anyway live the way these look but,like with Gingerbread houses at Christmas, I don’t want or need bugs.
I have never had a problem with bugs. I don’t know why– I have stored them and never had any issues.
If you leave them out long enough, they can attract ants. That happened with the sugar skulls my son made for Día de los Muertos at school. But, if you just had them out at Easter and stored them in an airtight container the rest of the year it should be fine.
The oldest one I have is one my mom and I made back in 1973. The sugar is more gray than white (from dust as I kept it in my china cabinet for years without being covered) and the lavender icing is also pretty faded, but other than that it is in perfect condition. If you live where it’s very humid, you probably need to keep it wrapped in saran wrap–otherwise, just store in a dry place and take them out to decorate for the Easter season. I have never had an issue with bugs. I started making them with my mom when I was 12 and now 55 years later, I’m still making them.
Thank you for posting. Would you happen to know the edible recipe? Also looking for a maple sugar candy recipe.
I don’t know how we could make these edible.. sorry!
I learned how to make these 30+ years ago, when I was learning to decorate cakes professionally to get my creative juices an outlet. I used paste food coloring for more vivid pinks, blues etc for the sugar egg. I sometimes used a ribbon that went all the way around the horizontal egg with a bow on top and had crafted flowers like roses that dried hard, then were attached. The background inside could be photos of small clusters of flowers etc found on postcards. Have to be small as it is background. I saw upright plastic eggs med size at Walmart that held candy, but would make perfect molds. I have used a Wilton egg shaped 2 piece cake pan, to make a giant egg as a centerpiece to use “after” the actual cake was cut up and served, still had a centerpiece for the table.
Wow, those are all great ideas! I love the idea of a giant egg! That would be awesome!
I made these many years ago myself but for some reason stopped. My mother always made these every year for my sisters and I. Will have to try this again. Thanks for posting them and reminding me of my yonger years.
Butter cream icing will work as well as royal icing and easier to make.
If you want your egg to last, you will want to use royal icing. Buttercream is too soft and won’t get rock hard and last years as a decoration.
My aunt presented one of these eggs to my 2 yr old daughter for Easter 36 years ago! I still have the egg and we now bring it out every Easter for my now 10 year old granddaughter to enjoy. I still have the original newspaper it was wrapped in from 36 years ago. It is wrapped and stored in an old cracker tin and it is still in perfect condition! Now that I’ve found this tutorial, I’m going to attempt to make a few new eggs this year. Thanks for the tutorial. It brought back great Easter memories!
How many eggs will 1 batch make?
1 Easter egg
I’m trying to find the pictures of the ones I made for my grandchildren now. I have thousands in my photo files. I hope you don’t mind. I just fb’d this page of yours.
I live in FL. I made them with a friend, and we had to get all the humidity out of the house by AC because they were cracking. I don’t believe my recipe called for egg whites, and that may be why. One, maybe two are still in existence. That was years ago.
The entire “instructions” will not print out.
Very critical that the packing/cutting/drying method be followed.
Have made these before, but wanted to print out the ENTIRE recipe for my files.
Thx
Hi Susan, I’ve sent a printable version to your email. Thanks for asking!
Hi,
I have made these eggs over the last 60 yrs. One trick I use is to perforate the viewing end, using a tooth pick, so it can be easily, but carefully, be cracked off when scraping the egg out. You need to make a 1/2 circle of perforations on the top and again on the matching bottom. This should be done, carefully, when the sugar egg is first turned out of the mold.
Also, when I read your suggestion of drying the eggs in the oven for 1/2 hr or so,I thought this was a great idea. But I found 15 min would be better. The egg was terribly hard to scrape out when dried 1/2 hr.
I like to scrape my dried egg shell out to about 1/4 to 1/3 inch. I feel 1/2 inch makes the egg too heavy.
Thank you for sharing this! It’s always wonderful to get tips from a pro!
This looks like a fun project! I’ve had one for about 40 years, it was given to me by a woman I babysat for I believe she made and sold them. It’s pink and the color is fading, but otherwise it’s in great condition. I just wrap mine in tissue paper or bubble wrap and nest it inside another Easter decoration for protection. It goes in the Easter box in the garage. I’ve never had a problem with bugs.
Wow! 40 years? Thank you for sharing this! I’m happy to know they will last that long… and even longer.
I started making the sugar eggs about 40 years ago. We still have some of the first ones I made. I wrap them in shrink wrap and they last really well. Water melts them, and sun fades them, but other than that they make good keepsakes.
I always just used sugar and water for the shells, and royal icing to decorate. I always advised against eating the, but there was nothing in them that would hurt anyone. The only thing was the inserts which were plastic. If you want them to last don’t put candy inside as a decoration, since it breaks down over the years. If you want it completely eatable, make the inserts with the royal icing and let them dry before putting in the egg.
I sold them for years, just by word of mouth to friends and co-workers, and always made enough to do something really fun for my family.
I haven’t made them for years, but may start again. I have so many cute inserts, and have a granddaughter that I think would like to learn to do them this year.
Thank you for sharing this Peggy. What a great tradition to pass down to your granddaughter!
Just a tip about the opening you look into. When you unmold the top and bottom sugar shapes to bake, put them on a wooden board with the small ends facing each other. Cut about an inch off of each small end, scrape away that portion and carefully push the two egg halves together so those blunt ends touch. After they have baked, take them off the board and scrape out the insides. The viewing opening will automatically form.
Great advice, thank you!!!
i tryed this last year w a different recipe . they came out ok in the beginning but as soon as i strated digging them out they broke,everytime, i tryed 6 of them and happened eveytime, what holds the 2 together just the frosting .?im going to try again , it was very disappointing i really wnated these as gifts.
You have to do the royal frosting that hardens (the recipe is included here in our recipe) it is like CEMENT when it dries. It always holds it together!