How To Make Cascarones

My friend Maria introduced us to cascarones about four years ago and they immediately became on of our favorite Easter traditions. "Cascarones" is the Spanish word for eggshells. They are eggshells that have been hollowed out, dyed (or painted) and filled with confetti. On Easter, you break them over your friends' heads in celebration or to bring luck. (Or, to hear Maria tell it, just out of mischief; sometimes they can be filled with flour or sugar which would make even more of a mess!)

If you live in Texas, you can buy cascarones at HEB for $1/dozen, but where's the fun in that?? If you live elsewhere, as far as I can tell, you either have to find someone who will ship cascarones to you or make your own.

I start saving eggshells in January. This is NOT Scott's favorite part of the process. If he's making an omelet, he just wants to make an omelet. If I could get him on board with saving the shells, I could probably push eggshell collecting to six weeks before Easter. Luckily, assuming the cook is willing, saving the shells is easy. Any time a recipe calls for an egg, I just crack the top off the eggshell and empty the egg into a small bowl so I can be sure no rogue bits of shell sneak in. Then I rinse out the shell and add it to the Cascarones-To-Be egg carton.

The week before Easter, we sit down and dye all the eggshells we've collected. I don't even bother with hard-boiled eggs anymore. (I don't think I have ever in life eaten a hard-boiled Easter egg.) We are 100%, all about the cascarones.

After all the eggs are dyed, we fill them with confetti. I always get the paper confetti because it will break down in the rain or just blow away. I think that if I got the glitter confetti, I would feel obligated to clean up after breaking the cascarones, and that would be pretty much impossible.

Once you've filled all the eggs, you are ready to move on to the next step. Take some regular ol' Elmer's School Glue and squeeze a line around the opening of the egg.

Lay tissue paper over the glue to cover the opening tightly. The glue will soften the tissue paper pretty much immediately, so the excess tears off easily. You can remove the excess as you glue each egg or you can set it aside and do it all at once.

All done! Isn't it pretty? Don't you just want to smash one--just one!!--right now? I always have to hold Will & Katie off with a whip and a chair because they are so excited to get on with the smashing.

Don't be scared! It's really fun!

Crunch!