Many of us have a story about the vibrant sweets that epitomized Easter to us as kids: Gazing at the intricate panoramic sugar eggs we wanted to eat but couldn’t. Misguidedly shoving as many Peeps as possible into our mouths. Marveling at the carved chocolate Easter bunnies in our baskets.
One of those sentimental treats—sugar egg dioramas—is something of a lost art, dating back to a 19th-century Victorian tradition of making tiny springtime dioramas in molded sugar shells. But today, people like sugar artist Dawn Nemec of Sugarscape Eggs are bringing the traditional edible decor to a new generation by selling her creations on Etsy. In her pastel-hued pieces, Nemec crafts magical scenes of lambs and bunnies in miniature fields of flowers, using a crystal sugar shell, royal icing, and sugar pastillage.
Nemec, who is based in La Selva Beach, California, launched her small business in 2020 after spending about 20 years decorating wedding cakes and high-end, elaborate creations like the ones you’d see on Is It Cake?, the Netflix show about desserts disguised as hyper-realistic objects.
Growing up, she often received sugar panoramic eggs in her Easter baskets. She always found them particularly special because she loved The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, a 1939 children’s picture book written by DuBose Heyward and illustrated by Marjorie Flack. In the book, the bunny heroine is tasked with delivering a panoramic sugar egg that “glittered like a diamond” to a sick child. Nemec eventually began making her own sugar eggs with designs based on the book, and has since found that they’re the most popular offerings in her shop.
Sugar eggs can last for decades, and some become treasured family heirlooms. Many of Nemec’s customers share stories with her about the sugar eggs they grew up with, vintage gems that they’re looking to replace. Though the eggs are meant to be displayed (not eaten), it’s important to her to stay true to their sweet origins, through and through.
“My philosophy is I always want to use only edible components, so all the animals—anything inside the egg—is always going to be completely made of sugar,” Nemec says.
Holding one in my hand, I can tell it is indeed sugar: The granules shimmer and sparkle in the light, and it smells sweet, like a marshmallow. I peek inside and find strangely delightful little characters, like a lamb in a bow tie amid finely detailed, tiny flowers. The top is crowned with a psychedelic rainbow bouquet of sugar flowers.
Looking out at the collectsion of Easter treats assembled for our shoot, I see a small army of foil bunnies, chocolate eggs bigger than a baby’s head, delicately freckled candy eggs, and the childhood favorite made of brightly colored marshmallow: Peeps.
According to CBS, millions of Peeps are made each day in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by Just Born Quality Confections, a family-owned candy manufacturer that also makes Hot Tamales, Mike and Ike’s, and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews. The company started as a small retail store and factory in Brooklyn, New York, in 1923.
Originally, Peeps were made by “hand-squeezing marshmallows through pastry tubes,” according to Just Born. In the early 1950s, they mechanized the process, cutting down production time from 27 hours to six minutes in a process that is still used today.
Nemec’s panoramic eggs are not such a quick process, of course. She makes them in batches and says it takes about an hour per egg, but she believes that the handmade element is a large part of what makes sugar egg dioramas so special.
“In this particular moment, so many things are automated,” Nemec says. “And this is something that a lot of human work and human skill go into making, and it just can’t be done any other way. The fact that it’s a nostalgic art form, but also something that has to be made with human care, gives it that extra specialness.”
