Panoramic Easter Eggs are a fun Easter craft for kids! They are decorated with frosting, flowers, jellybeans and little bunnies and chicks.
Panoramic Easter Eggs
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 morning. It was always something we looked forward to. Now that I have my own little family, the tradition lives on. 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.
Beautiful But Not Edible
Though this isn’t a recipe that is edible, 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? If you are looking for some edible Easter recipes, try one of these “Must Have” Easter Desserts and Treats!
What you need to make Panoramic Easter Eggs
First of all, you need an egg mold. I found these at the grocery store for $3 (see image below). 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 them. You can’t lose! Look around and be creative – you will find something. 
How to make Panoramic Easter Eggs
Don’t add extra water or liquid. It will make it too wet. Just keep stirring (or mix it together with your hands) until it gets damp. You want the sugar to clump together if you squeeze it in your hand.
Filling the mold
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.
Creating the panorama inside the egg
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.
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.
How to decorate Panoramic Easter Eggs
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.
How to preserve Panoramic Easter Eggs
Once it has set, your Panoramic Easter Eggs are complete! To save it for future Easters, wrap them carefully in paper or plastic and store them 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. You will see in the comments below that Peggy still has eggs she made 40 years ago!
Ingredients
- 1 egg white
- food coloring optional
- 3 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Whisk the egg white until it becomes kind of foamy. If you would like to color your egg, add food coloring to the egg white and mix well. If you do add coloring to your egg, remember that you will be adding a lot of sugar to the egg white, so it’s a good idea to dye the egg white a darker color than what you want your final product to be.
- In a large bowl, mix together the granulated and powdered sugars so they’re mixed well. Pour the egg white into the sugars and begin stirring. At first it will seem like it won't get wet enough, but keep stirring until it becomes like damp beach sand.
Julia Fleury says
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.
Echo says
Thank you for sharing this! It’s always wonderful to get tips from a pro!
Rebecca says
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.
Echo says
Wow! 40 years? Thank you for sharing this! I’m happy to know they will last that long… and even longer.
Peggy Clenney says
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.
Echo says
Thank you for sharing this Peggy. What a great tradition to pass down to your granddaughter!
Virginia Brown says
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.
Erica says
Great advice, thank you!!!
vickie harmon says
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.
Erica says
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!
Diane says
Hi, I can’t get the egg out of the mold. Do you have any suggestions?
Favorite Family Recipes says
Yikes! I have never had that happen before! Were you able to finally get it out?
Eva says
I’m so glad I found this site. I made sugar eggs about 28 years ago for my children’s classes, family and friends. They were a big hit1 Using the large wilton sugar mold, I made the flat bottom the panoramic window and removed one end to make the bottom. I used thread to gently “saw” the bottom off and loosen the panoramic window. I’m researching how to do them again because I’m making them for my grandchildren this year. I went to see my Aunt last year and she said I have something to show you. She still had the sugar egg I made her so long ago. It was in a large plastic ziplock bag and except for some fading of the royal icing it looked great.
Favorite Family Recipes says
Wow! She still had it? That is amazing! These sugar eggs can definitely hold up. They are such a fun family tradition– and not as hard to make as they seem, right? I am sure your grandchildren are doing to love them! Thanks for taking the time to come back and comment 😀
Sandra says
I love reading the stories about when people were younger I remember when I was a little girl and we would go to the store and buy those eggs I have not seen a recipe that uses egg whites I’m going to try it also people were asking about the little things inside the eggs if you go onto Pinterest you will find lots of photos of almost anything for girls and boys I print the picture out of course I Downside the picture and then I lemonade it and I stick the pictures into the egg you can also use pictures of the child that you’re giving it to for instance I’m making a little girl it first holy communion age I have a picture of her with their hands praying standing to the side looking up and found the picture of Jesus from the side giving communion in the background is a picture of the church she goes to the picture is smaller and everything is laminated also I have around laminated disk that I use for the window to look in I hope this helps
Erica Walker says
Those are all such great ideas! I love the idea of using laminated pictures. You can also use those “shrinky links” and have the kids draw little pictures and shrink them down so they fit in the eggs.
J says
The kids love making these!