Japanese Egg Molds: How-To

How do you turn an ordinary oval-shaped chicken egg into a fun food item that'll be the talk of your child's kindergarten? Turn it into a bunny-shaped hard-boiled egg, that's how! In another what-will-they-think-of-next segment of "Those Crazy Japanese," the Land of the Rising have given us the--drum-roll--Egg Mold! Although it's been around for years, I've just recently discovered it through my 'net surfing for the latest food trends. In the competitive world of bento preparation, mothers all over Japan compete against each other to decorate their children's lunch (bento) boxes with the most unique and and most colorful food items. Star-shaped carrots, meat patties decorated like Mickey Mouse's face, Hello Kitty-shaped hard-boild eggs, you name it and it's been done. And yes, I'm pretty serious.

So I decided to seek out these unique egg molds, in the hope that it might help my youngest daughter to finally get eggs onto her very limited food likes. After hunting around for a while, I found these molds (2 per pack) on Ebay for less than $5 each (see below).

So how does one get these egg molds to work? Well, here are step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: Buy molds!

Step 2: You'll need eggs, specifically extra-large eggs. The large ones would work as well but the shapes won't be as defined. So get that egg into a pot of boiling water and make yourself a hard-boiled egg.

Step 3: When the egg is done, remove the shell cleanly, making sure not to tear the outside egg white. Place the egg onto the mold and gently press down and shut the mold.

Step 4: Place the egg mold (with the boiled egg in it) into the refrigerator for about 15 -30 minutes for it to cool down and take its shape. When it's done, you'll get..........TADA! A bunny-shaped egg!

Step 5: You are done! Now you can remove the molded egg and either leave it whole (3-D bunny head) or cut it in half and have 2 bunny faced eggs!