Fake Eggs for Easter

Fake egg being dipped in a wax/calcium chloride mix to make
a shell. 

Because its Easter, I want to post on eggs, specifically fake eggs. Fake eggs are being sold in China in place of real chicken eggs. Some people think this is a hoax, but even if it is a hoax, the hoaxers have developed a great craft technique to make realistic looking eggs from goop.

There are even recipes for how to do it.

Below is a youtube link to a Chinese news report including undercover footage on how to make the eggs. If  you want to see him making a pretty convincing egg, fast forward to about 3:30 minutes.

This link has a recipe: it has three different gelants, "sodium alga" (which might be sodium alginate), gelatin, and carboymethyl cellulose. The white is the same as the yoke except for food coloring in the yoke. The egg is "set" in place with calcium chloride, and that solidifies the gels, making a skin around it.

The egg looks and feels realistic, but I don't think anyone would be fooled by these eggs if they were eating them.  The egg shell looks pretty convincing too. I bet a con man could pass them at a farmers market.

The other kind of fake egg is a human egg that is made with stem cell techniques. More on that next time.