salt dough for decorations, play food and more
Salt dough is a combination of salt, flour and water. It has the consistency of clay or play dough, it’s safe to use around babies and toddlers (it’s non toxic), and once dry it can be painted and decorated. We’ve used salt dough for making pretend food, coaster for cups of tea, candle holders, for making tiny handprints and footprints (when they’re little), and to create both Christmas decorations and Easter decorations. In other words, it’s super versatile. We always have plenty of salt and flour in the store cupboard just in case, as this is a super quick and easy activity to prepare.
Recipe:
You just need flour, salt, and water. The ratio is 2:1:1, so for example 2 cups of flour to 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of water, or 1 cup of flour to 1/2 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of water. Just mix and knead into a dough.
Other materials:
You’ll want some baking paper, a rolling pin, and some shapes for cutting.
Method:
Once you’ve made your creations from the dough, put them all on some baking paper on a baking tray and cook in the oven on a very low heat (we usually do around 100C) for 2-3 hours. Realistically you’ll want to wait until the next day to do glueing or painting.
We’ve ended up with quite a collection – most of them are from Dille & Kamille.
Save decorating for another day, once everything is dry. Get out the pens, paints, glitter, sequins, or whatever you have! We’ve found that chalk paint pens are the most satisfying way to paint onto salt dough.
salt dough is ideal for making “play food”. Biscuits, donuts, choc chip cookies, croissants, toast, bread loaves etc are all pretty easy for kids to make, but I’d love to try and make something like a crab, lobster, and tin of sardines!
One year we picked and pressed flowers (they picked, I pressed), and we glued them to salt dough decorations for the Easter tree. Three years later and the flowers have browned a little bit, but all in all they have lasted pretty good!
boys wouldn’t be boys without some poo jokes, so here is their “unicorn poo”.
If you’re making decorations for hanging, use a chopstick or similar to pierce a generous sized hole. A toothpick sized hole will close up in the oven!
Chalk markers make “painting” easy and mess free ;)
(or embrace the mess)
