We Tried A TikTok Hack For Improving Cadbury Mini Eggs And Discovered How To Make Them Taste Like Brownies
When we tried a microwave hack to improve Cadbury Mini Eggs, we never imagined our experiments would lead to a version that tasted like brownies. After following a TikToker's advice to heat Cadbury Mini Eggs in the microwave, we were curious if we'd get different or even better results from heating them with other methods. After trying them in the microwave, we experimented with heating them in the air fryer, on the car dashboard, and in the oven.
While three of these methods yielded similar results, one stood out far above the others because it ended up tasting like brownies. We also experimented with cooling the Mini Eggs back down again after heating both at room temperature and in the freezer. You'll definitely want to read on to discover exactly what happens when you heat Cadbury Mini Eggs using different methods and which method results in Cadbury Mini Egg brownies.
What you need to know about Cadbury Mini Eggs
Cadbury was first granted a Royal Warrant to be the supplier of chocolate to British royalty in 1854. Since Cadbury Mini Eggs have been around since 1875, Queen Victoria would have had access to them. Even though Cadbury Mini Eggs have been around since long before any of us were born, there's still a chance you might not have tried them yet, especially since they're only around at Easter in the U.S.
If you haven't tried them yet, it's important to note that the eggs come with a very hard candy shell on the outside and that the chocolate inside is fairly hard, too. As such, it's easiest to crack using your molars rather than your front teeth when you bite down on them. Luckily, being mini eggs, they're the perfect size for back-teeth chomping. The outer shell is sweet but doesn't really have a flavor other than sugar, while the chocolate inside is reminiscent of the chocolate inside M&Ms. However, unlike M&Ms, the outside colored layer has a matte rather than a glossy finish, so it's easier to grip it between your teeth. Plus, the shell is thicker.
The nutritional content for Cadbury Mini Eggs
The serving size for Cadbury Mini Eggs is nine pieces. However, since they're about the size of a small bird's egg, nine is a good number. Those nine Mini Eggs weigh 32 grams and represent 160 calories. While a serving only has 7 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of the fat is saturated fat, representing nearly a fourth of the saturated fat you should consume for the whole day. The sugar content is also fairly high, with nine eggs containing 22 grams of sugar, which is 44% of the amount you should be consuming for the day. A serving also has 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 20 milligrams of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, and 2 grams of protein.
The eggs are milk chocolate, so the lactose intolerant may want to be wary. Easily recognizable ingredients in the Mini Eggs include sugar, milk, chocolate, lactose, both natural and artificial flavors, cornstarch, corn syrup, palm kernel oil, palm oil, baking soda, and salt. The less familiar ingredients – soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, and gum acacia – are all food-safe emulsifiers to help the ingredients blend together. Unfortunately, the food colorings in the Mini Eggs include yellows five and six, blues two and two lake, and red 40, several of which may have the potential for negative side effects like cancer (via Healthline).
What happened when we tried the microwave hack for improving Cadbury Mini Eggs
We weren't exactly sure what to expect when microwaving Cadbury Mini Eggs. The original TikToker who suggested the hack said microwaved Mini Eggs are "unreal." She said she wished she'd always microwaved her Mini Eggs instead of eating them straight from the package because they "don't break your teeth." The video shows that it's easy for her to smash the eggs between her fingers, revealing gooey and soft chocolate inside.
We tried microwaving the candy for 15-second intervals until we reached the best results. After all, microwaves are all different, and elevation can play a role in cooking times as well.
At 15 seconds nothing had happened. At 30 seconds, some of the eggs started to slightly crack open. By 45 seconds, you could start to hear more intense crackling sounds and see more fractures along the outer surface. At 60 seconds, the cracked eggs were easy to open, and the chocolate was softer inside but cool. Adding an additional 15 seconds (for a total of 75 seconds) warmed up the chocolate and made it more liquid.
Overall, microwaving did solve the problem of hard Mini Eggs. While the shells don't soften, the chocolate does. If you don't want warm or runny chocolate eggs, you'll want to stop heating somewhere around 50-60 seconds. But if warm, runny eggs sound good, you'll want to keep heating them for about another 15 seconds after the chocolate softens.
Adventures in heating Cadbury Mini Eggs in the air fryer
Because it sounded like fun and we were already experimenting with heating up Cadbury Mini Eggs, we thought we'd try heating some up in a Ninja air fryer. Having experienced loose toppings like cheese flying around inside the whirlwind of the air fryer, we were a little apprehensive about what might happen by putting candy inside the air fryer in a small glass dish, but we fired it up anyway. Almost immediately, we could hear the Mini Eggs flying around inside and hitting things like they were inside a tornado. This experiment is exactly the type of kitchen experiment that brings childhood rushing right back.
The first run was just for a minute, and we cautiously opened the air fryer, hoping we wouldn't see chocolate everywhere. Luckily, the candy and the air fryer were fine. Each Mini Egg had a singular crack running down the middle and was still cold inside when pried open. We decided to cook the Mini Eggs for an additional minute. This time, the sounds coming from inside weren't quite as dramatic. When we opened the air fryer, each egg had a spiderwebbing of cracks across the entire surface, and the inside was perfectly melty and warm.
Using the car dashboard to heat Cadbury Mini Eggs
When we were trying to get our Cadbury Mini Eggs to a kitchen for experimentation, we were a little afraid they would melt in the car when we stopped off for a 5-minute dash into a store. This sentiment gave us the idea of seeing if we could duplicate the microwave hack simply by putting them out in the sun. Since it was only 64 degrees Fahrenheit outside, it would have taken quite a while for the candy to get melty on a plate outdoors. However, the car dashboard seemed the perfect place to cook them. So we loaded up a saucer and set them inside the car to bake.
After 15 minutes on the car dashboard, the Mini Eggs' shells cracked open just like they had in the microwave and the air fryer. However, the inside was still cold. After 15 more minutes (a total of 30 minutes), we checked the eggs again. This time, they were perfectly soft and warm inside. We have to say that this is the first time we've melted our chocolate in the car on purpose, but it was still intriguing since we could duplicate appliance cooking results in the car in just 15-30 minutes.
Baking Cadbury Mini Eggs in the oven
We weren't terribly excited about trying to bake Cadbury Mini Eggs in the oven because we were expecting similar results to what happened in the microwave, in the air fryer, and on the car dashboard. However, we were absolutely wrong. We started out by preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit since that's the temperature nearly every baking recipe requires. Once the oven was ready, we placed the Mini Eggs in a baking pan with parchment paper underneath them to avoid making too much of a mess.
After five minutes in the oven, the kitchen smelled divine. We could have believed that there was a chocolate cake or some brownies baking in the oven. At first, when we took a peek at the candies, we were not optimistic. The eggs had cracked open like in our other experiments. However, the chocolate inside seemed to have lost moisture and dried somewhat. When we tasted the Mini Eggs, they tasted like little Mini Egg brownies. Eureka!
For the sake of research, we tried heating them for an additional five minutes, but we wish we hadn't. After a total of ten minutes in the oven, the delightful brownie-flavored Mini Eggs turned into melty puddles that tasted like burned chocolate. So timing is everything to get perfect brownie-flavored Mini Eggs.
What to expect when you cool Cadbury Mini Eggs back down after heating
If you don't eat all of the Cadbury Mini Eggs you heat, they don't quite cool back down to their original form. The outer sugar shell remains cracked, so the candy is easier to eat. And the inner chocolate layer remains softer than it comes straight out of the bag. So you could conceivably heat up all the eggs, let them cool down at room temperature, and then put them back in the bag to consume later in a softer state.
However, we don't recommend freezing them to cool them down faster unless you plan to eat them right away. After 15 minutes in the freezer, the candy was even harder than they were fresh from the bag. The texture had changed because of the previous melting. However, we do think they tasted better. Unfortunately, if you freeze them and then they unfreeze at room temperature, the shell will end up wet with condensation. So you get the whole M&Ms-melting-in-your-hands effect without actually touching the eggs.
Our verdict for the best hack to improve Cadbury Mini Eggs
Overall, heating the Cadbury Mini Eggs makes them easier to eat without endangering your teeth. Microwaving, heating in the car, and air frying did not result in any sort of culinary wonder. Although we have to admit that the air frying method was immensely satisfying, because it was like sending your chocolates up in a cyclone. While the other Mini Egg experiments were entertaining, they didn't result in Mini Eggs that changed in flavor. Instead, the big change was a change in texture. In these methods, the outer shell became a distinct entity unto itself, while the chocolate became either slightly or extremely melted (depending on how long you cooked it).
Ultimately, we found that cooking your Cadbury Mini Eggs in a preheated oven for five minutes improves them the most. This transformative cooking process takes Mini Eggs from ordinary chocolate eggs to an extraordinary brownie-flavored candy. You get the satisfying crunch of the outer shell along with a mini brownie-like treat inside. You just have to be careful to cool them ever so slightly after they come out of the oven so you don't burn your mouth. If you're going to try just one of these Mini Egg hacks, you should definitely try the baking Mini Egg hack. Although we wouldn't blame you if you wanted to try every version for the fun of it.