"you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs"

In my never-ending quest for Easter figurines to put in my sugar panorama eggs, I have discovered a new source.

I was seriously considering it when I was looking for miniatures for my Halloween and Christmas Putz villiages, but I just couldn't bring myself to follow through with the destruction. Dollar Tree carries miniature snowglobes at each holiday. They're just under 3 inches tall and the figurines inside the globe look to be the perfect size! So, yesterday I gave in to my temptation and bought a few Easter globes.

I wasn't sure what would happen when I tried to harvest the figurine from it's globe, so I put the whole thing in a shallow tray and covered the glass with a paper towel before I smashed it with a hammer. The glass is super thin and it really only takes a tap to break it. The liquid inside is just a non-toxic glycerin solution. And it turns out that the base of the figurine is actually a rubber stopper that's used to plug the globe when it's filled.

So I smashed all the globes and cleaned up the figurines. They all have a nice high gloss finish and I think the rubber stopper will stay because it can sink into the icing and the little guy will sit at just the right height inside the eggs.

Of course I don't plan to make enough eggs to use all of these figurines. I'll probably only make 1 or 2 eggs this year. But I'll save the figurines for future Easters. It makes me feel better to know I have Easter acessories ready for making panorama eggs at any time. Am I a hoarder?

Two of the globes popped right out of the base cleanly, so I'll save them and use them for something else. Maybe I'll put an airplant in one or make a tiny little Easter basket.

Sugar Panorama Easter Eggs

I finished all my sewing projects before Spring Break officially started this year, so I spent the day yesterday making panorama sugar eggs. I made them back in 2000 for everyone in my family. I was visiting my Mom on Saturday and she had her's out on the table. They still look good 10 years later.

I knew when I did them, that I had found the instructions online, but I didn't remember where. So I just followed a recipe that looked good. Well after I molded the eggs I found the actual recipe that I used back in 2000. So the eggs this year are just sugar and water. I just added 2 tablespoons of water for each cup of sugar that I used. So far they seem to be holding up. The original recipe that I used on the first batch of eggs 10 years ago is as follows:

1 lg. egg white
3 c. granulated sugar
1 c. powdered sugar
Food coloring

You mix all the ingredients with your hands and when it's all combined and you have your desired color, the sugar should keep it's shape when squeezed.

I like to wear gloves because sometimes the food color will stain your skin and I also don't like the sugar crystals under my fingernails. Next you pack the sugar firmly into the halves of your egg mold. I didn't buy any special mold for these. The small eggs are the standard plastic easter eggs which gives you an egg in cross section, the larg eggs had easter temporary tattoos in them and they're also in cross section, and my favorite mold because it's the only longitudinal section is the medium size that had a toy car in it. I got them all in the seasonal Easter section at WalMart. They were really inexpensive and I can re-use them.

I cut the rim off a small, dessert-sized paper plate and set it on top of the egg half and inverted the whole thing. Then I put the paper plate with the egg on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and slid the egg half onto the wax paper.

Let the eggs dry for right around 2 hours. When you pick them up the outside will have started to harden, but the sugar on the inside will be soft enough to scoop out. I use either a pointed grapefruit spoon or an ice tea spoon to get the sugar out of the middle. You want to make sure you leave about a 1/4-1/2 inch think wall all around. Then I use a really sharp little paring knife to shape the opening. I lost about half as many eggs as I molded this time. I'm pretty sure it was because of the recipe I used. I definitely don't remember that many crumbling when I made them with the recipe that used egg white. Once you have them shaped, they need to dry overnight and be completely hardened before you start decorating.

Some panorama eggs have little figurines inside. My dad took me searching all over the place the first time I made these to find tiny bunnies and easter related figurines. This time I decided to just download some easter clip art. I printed them on photo paper, then glued them to cardstock.

I made up some royal icing following this recipe:

3 egg whites, room temperature
1 lb. powdered sugar
3/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Then I started decorating. I started with piping "grass" into the bottom with a start tip. I added the picture I had cut out for each egg. I "glued" the two egg halves together with color-coordinated icing. I covered the seamline with icing and decorated the edge of the panorama opening. Then I piped in leaves and flowers.

This egg is my favorite for our first Easter as Mr. & Mrs. Bacon: