So, for years my boyfriend, Greg, has been fantasing about a giant creme egg filled with goo, which can be eaten with a spoon. One night last year, surfing the internet, I came across these instructions to make a Giant Creme Egg from Pimp That Snack, and decided, out of love, to try making it. Let's just say it was not the most serene cooking experience! As I did this last year, before I started blogging, the quality of the pictures are a little scrappy and were taken in the heat of panicked moments!
I was quite scared about making a Giant Creme Egg as I have a bad history with boiling sugar. My last attempt, when I was younger, led to my friend and I trying to get hardened sugar off her mum's brand new work surface for several hours. By the time we were finished we had cuts all over our hands from the sugar shards. I therefore need to be supervised when boiling sugar! My sister kindly offered to carry out the duties and let me try this at her house.
Day 1: I had to be careful to heat the mixture to a certain temperature and so I borrowed my mum's sugar thermometer for the purpose. Everything seemed to be going fine, if very slowly. Whilst my sister's housemates were busy trying to make their dinner, I was desperately trying to make creme egg goo.
I was quite scared about making a Giant Creme Egg as I have a bad history with boiling sugar. My last attempt, when I was younger, led to my friend and I trying to get hardened sugar off her mum's brand new work surface for several hours. By the time we were finished we had cuts all over our hands from the sugar shards. I therefore need to be supervised when boiling sugar! My sister kindly offered to carry out the duties and let me try this at her house.
Day 1: I had to be careful to heat the mixture to a certain temperature and so I borrowed my mum's sugar thermometer for the purpose. Everything seemed to be going fine, if very slowly. Whilst my sister's housemates were busy trying to make their dinner, I was desperately trying to make creme egg goo.
Finally it started to look like creme egg goo! Yay! However, unbeknownst to me, the temperature had begun to creep beyond where I needed it to be. This led to Failure 1: overheating the sugar mixture.
Thinking I had done well, I put the goo in a tub and asked my sister to let it cool round her house.
Day 2: The next evening I was ready to start decanting my goo into the chocolate egg, but this is where I had a problem! The goo was no longer goo! It had completely solidified, absolutely rock hard. At this point I began to wish I had never started!
I scoured the internet for hints and tips and dashed to the supermarket to get supplies that might solve the problem. I read somewhere that cream of tartar would help and I also decided to try some condensed milk.
So, the second attempt involved adding condensed milk and cream of tartar to the rock hard blob of sugar. Eventually the consistency started to resemble creme egg goo once again. Phew!
I scoured the internet for hints and tips and dashed to the supermarket to get supplies that might solve the problem. I read somewhere that cream of tartar would help and I also decided to try some condensed milk.
So, the second attempt involved adding condensed milk and cream of tartar to the rock hard blob of sugar. Eventually the consistency started to resemble creme egg goo once again. Phew!
Time was pressing on. I tried to cool the goo down, ready for the chocolate egg. I was being lazy and using an existing Cadbury egg as the case for my goo. At this point I realised I didn't have any red food colouring, so the centre of my egg looked a little anaemic, but soon this would be the least of my worries.
I stupidly thought to myself, 'it will be ok, I'll just pour the mixture into the egg case now'. Ummm... duh! It turns out that hot goo melts chocolate, and the egg case collapsed. For the full realisation of this failure, take a look at the picture.
I stupidly thought to myself, 'it will be ok, I'll just pour the mixture into the egg case now'. Ummm... duh! It turns out that hot goo melts chocolate, and the egg case collapsed. For the full realisation of this failure, take a look at the picture.
At this point I realised that I was not going to make my pilates class and rang the gym to cancel, giving them the long explanation to their bemusement.
The next thing I knew, Greg sent a text saying he was on his way home early. I texted my sister saying ‘it’s all going wrong and now Greg is coming home’. But, being all panicked, who did I send it to? Greg! I then had to field a call from Greg asking me what was going on!
I started to blindly panic and rushed to the other room to get another chocolate egg case. I bent down to pick it up and as I stood upright I heard a massive thud. It took me a good minute to realise that it was my head, which I had just whacked on one of our eaves.
So, now I was crying with the pain, with all the goo and secret egg plans laid out in the kitchen, and Greg on his way home. I couldn't really see straight and was sitting on the sofa with a bag of frozen green beans held to my head.
Luckily, my dad very kindly popped round and helped me hide the evidence.
The next thing I knew, Greg sent a text saying he was on his way home early. I texted my sister saying ‘it’s all going wrong and now Greg is coming home’. But, being all panicked, who did I send it to? Greg! I then had to field a call from Greg asking me what was going on!
I started to blindly panic and rushed to the other room to get another chocolate egg case. I bent down to pick it up and as I stood upright I heard a massive thud. It took me a good minute to realise that it was my head, which I had just whacked on one of our eaves.
So, now I was crying with the pain, with all the goo and secret egg plans laid out in the kitchen, and Greg on his way home. I couldn't really see straight and was sitting on the sofa with a bag of frozen green beans held to my head.
Luckily, my dad very kindly popped round and helped me hide the evidence.
Day 3: The giant creme egg saga continued with me finally managing to finish off the creme eggs early in the morning before work, whilst Greg was still asleep. I managed to even make an extra half for Greg's brother with the extra goo. To make a whole egg, I stuck two halves together using melted chocolate as glue, wrapped them in foil, and placed them back in the creme egg box.
The following disclaimer accompanied the egg, together with this picture story, when I gave it to Greg.
Disclaimer: Please understand this has not been a nice experience and at some points those close to me genuinely thought this project might kill me. I am never doing this again. I know it isn’t very gooey but it is the best I could achieve and took lots of time, effort and sanity.
I never thought Greg could eat enough sugar, but I think I defeated him with this giant gift (made of 3lbs of sugar, and 2 bottles of liquid glucose). Greg was overwhelmed, and spent several days ploughing through it with a spoon!
If you have enjoyed this blog post I would love to chat to you on twitter @turquoiselemons or on the Turquoise Lemons facebook page. There are also lots of other ways you can subscribe to the blog at the top of the sidebar. Thank you for reading!
I am applying to be a Morphy Richards Innovator and have submitted this post to the Foodies100 application process.
