Have fun making salt dough

Making salt dough is a really fun and easy activity for kids, and chances are you have all of the ingredients on hand already.

Children will enjoy using their imaginations to create a variety of exciting objects (although simple shapes seem to work best with younger children) and will fun painting their creations.

Good to know: Keep in mind that the salt dough is not edible.

* Makes one ball

* Preparation time: 10 minutes, 3 hours in the oven

What you need

• 1 cup of flour (250g)
• Half-cup of table salt (125g)
• Half-cup of water (125ml)

How to make it

1. Preheat the oven to its lowest temperature and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt. Stir in the water until the mixture forms a ball.
3. Place the dough on a floured work surface. You can help your child roll it out and use biscuit cutters to cut out shapes, numbers, or letters.
4. Place your child’s finished items on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 3 hours, or until solid.
5. Allow to cool before painting.

Top hints

• Because the dough isn’t sturdy until baked, simple designs work best. If your child can’t decide between a tall giraffe and a smaller gecko, point them in the direction of the gecko. Keep in mind that the longer it takes to harden in the oven, the larger/fatter the model.
• Instead of using extra flour, try rolling out the shapes on silicone baking sheets. This saves you time cleaning up in the kitchen. Silicone sheets are also an easy way to bake without using parchment paper.
• If you want to make salt dough ‘cupcakes’, place your shaped dough in cupcake cases before baking the pretend cakes in cupcake trays. The dough then hardens and sticks firmly to the paper cases, ready to be painted with pretend icing, cherries, or sprinkles.