Too Beautiful to Dye?

We always coloured eggs when I was growing up and it is a family tradition that has continued. In the USA we had white eggs.  Brown eggs were considered somewhat inferior, just as white eggs are not in favour here in England.    But brown eggs do not dye as well.  Our butcher reserved these six duck eggs for us. They are such lovely pale tones of bluish white that I am reluctant to dye them.  However, I promised coloured eggs so I will deliver.

I was right. They were too beautiful to dye.  First of all, my Paas Easter Egg Colouring kit was too old and the dye tablets were crushed and running into one another, so they had to be thrown away.  Then, some of my food colours were too weak to dye the shells - fine for icing, but not for eggs - so the blue and green stayed pale and showed the beautiful striations of the shells, but the others are a bit garish.  

Nevertheless, they looked very festive on the table in my mother's old pressed-glass egg dish.

Along with the pretty Easter cookies we made and iced.  

Hope you had a Happy Easter.  We certainly did.