Japanese bento boxes , which are essentially a fancy lunch boxes, have been employed for centuries; bento fare can be simple or ornate and hard cooked eggs in fun shapes are often part of the meal.  I saw these adorable egg molds featured on a mommy blog a year and a half ago and purchased a set immediately. I can’t recall whether I bought them on eBay or Amazon but they are available lots of places online very inexpensively.

If you’re a parent of a picky eater, you know that there is little we won’t do to entice our children to try ‘new’ foods. My 7 year old daughter considered corn on the cob a new food until very recently. She has never eaten a hot dog and thinks chocolate is “yucky.” Egg molds were another in a long list of creative attempts to appeal to her sense of adventure.  (They also make fun Play Doh presses!)

To use the molds, very simply: place peeled, hard cooked eggs into the mold while still warm, lock and chilled in cool water for a few minutes.

Select eggs that are large enough to fill the mold when peeled. Bantam eggs are not large enough for the mold to shape and imprint upon the egg properly.

Fresh eggs can be a challenge to peel but using the technique here, it’s a breeze: Steam eggs for 15 minutes, then plunge into an ice bath momentarily and peel. The egg needs to be warm when placed into the mold, so don’t leave the eggs in ice water for more than a moment.

Close mold and latch. Some egg white may squish out the sides, no worries. Submerge mold in cold water for several minutes to set the shape.