An Extreme Super Bowl Cupcake Makeover for Easter Eggs

A couple of years ago, I introduced you to cupcakes baked in real egg shells. Cracking open an egg shell to reveal a cupcake inside is one of those rare food surprises that leaves even the most jaded of adults with a sense of childhood wonder and awe.  This year, I am turning the Easter cupcake phenomenon into a Super Bowl sensation.

Skip the pastels and dye your egg to look like a football, hide a chocolate cupcake inside, and get ready for kickoff! 

How to Make Super Bowl Football Cupcakes Baked in Real Egg Shells

I probably should have cleaned the brown dye off of my fingers pre-photo. ;)

To make these Super Bowl Football Cupcakes baked in real egg shells, I used the same technique that I used with the Easter cupcakes baked in egg shells, only I used chocolate cupcake batter.  You can find all of the instructions and step-by-step photos in that post.

After preparing the egg shells (removing the innards, soaking them in salt water, rinsing, and drying them off), you'll need to dye them to look like footballs.  Don't try to dye them before preparing them or the dye will wash off in the prep process (spoken from experience). 

To make the eggs look like footballs, you'll need:

• a crayon
• brown food coloring
• water
• white vinegar

First, draw the stitching on the egg using a crayon.  Ideally, you'd do this in white, but it's really hard to draw with a white crayon on a white egg and get lines that are remotely straight.  I opted for a light green crayon (grey would have been an even better choice).  When you submerge the egg in the dye, the dye won't stick to the wax and you'll be able to clearly see your lines.

Next, it's time to dye the eggs.  In preparing to make these Super Bowl football dyed eggs, I did a lot of research on egg dying.  Most sites said something similar to Martha Stewart's guide: use 20 drops of food coloring, one cup of hot water, and one teaspoon of vinegar.  When I followed this technique, my white eggs ended up looking like brown eggs (I could have just bought those), not dark brown football eggs.  I turned to the Cupcake Project Facebook Community for advice.  Many of you suggested using more vinegar.  It worked!

Tips for Creating Dark Brown Eggs

• Use more than 20 drops of dye (start there, but add more until you get a color you like).
• Use more than 1 teaspoon of vinegar.  Start with a tablespoon and add more until you are happy with the result.
• Leave the egg shells in the dye for at least 3 minutes. I dipped some of mine for 5-10 minutes.  (This is a good activity to do while watching a favorite TV series that you've already seen - Dawson's Creek is my latest show of choice.)
• Dip the egg shell a second time if it's not dark enough after the first time.

Don't Fumble

The hardest part of making football cupcake eggs is filling the football eggs with the correct amount of batter.  If you fumble by filling an egg shell with too little batter, the cupcake football ends up as a sad half of a ball.  But, if you overfill an egg shell, it overflows as it bakes onto the outside of the shell.  When you peel the cake off the shell, the color comes off as well (very upsetting after you spend all of that time dying it).  Shoot for halfway full or choose a recipe that doesn't rise very much - I'd love to try filling the eggshells with fudgey brownie batter! 

Touchdown!

I hope these are a touchdown at your Super Bowl party!  Leave me a comment or post some photos on the Cupcake Project Facebook page to share your success!

P.S.  If you want a second cupcake (which of course you do), I suggest giving my CNN-featured Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes, or my beer cheese cupcakes with bacon and cheddar frosting a try!