I like pointless things - and in my kitchen, there is nothing more utterly pointless than my collection of egg moulds - little snap close boxes that turn an ordinary boiled egg into a funny shaped one instead. One of my favourites has to be the little pink Hello Kitty one, which I purchased partly to amuse my daughter by jazzing up her lunchbox, but mostly to amuse myself!
Costing £4.99 from Amazon.co.uk, this is actually quite expensive compared to the rest of my collection, most of which were purchased for around 5 dollars a pair from America. Essentially, it's a small plastic box, with a lid that has four flaps that snap down tight to seal the two halves together. As you can see from the picture above, it has an impression of Hello Kitty's head in it.
To use this, it's fairly simple . You boil up your egg, and whilst it is still hot peel off the shell. It's best to do this in a pot of cool water, as the ceramic in the eggshell is very hot, even after being removed from the pan. Then, you simply pop the egg, with the longer side running horizontally, into the hole in the mould, and snap the lid down tight. Then, you pop the whole mould into a pot of cold water, and you might want to weight it down with something, as it tends to float about in the pan and not cool evenly.
Then you wait - for ten minutes. Flip up the little tabs, remove the lid, and there you have it, a perfect impression of Hello Kitty, in deliciously tasty boiled egg form. Well, being honest, the egg doesn't taste any different, but it looks an awful lot more fun - and my daughter is certainly more receptive to eating boiled eggs as a healthy and nutritious snack when they are amusingly shaped.
For a little added flair, you could also add some food colouring to the hot water you've boiled the eggs in once they are cooked, crack the egg shells a little, and allow to sit in the pan of hot water for a minute for an attractive marbling effect.
These eggs look lovely in a lunchbox and are sure to put a smile on your face - I've recently started a new job, and my egg salads attract a lot of comments in the break room!
As already mentioned, I do think a fiver is rather too much for this product, and only being able to do one egg at a time is an inconvenience when everybody wants one. Whilst I do think it's an amusing little product, I think you can get better value buying the egg moulds from the American Amazon site, where there is a better variety at better prices.
