5 days of festive fun: day 4 - Make salt dough decorations

Making salt dough is a really fun and easy activity for children and the chances are you will have all of the ingredients in the cupboard ready to go on a rainy day. Children will love using their imaginations to create all sorts of exciting objects (although simple shapes do seem to work best) and hours of fun painting their creations, but do take care to remind little ones that the salt dough is not edible.

Makes 1 ball
Prep 10 minutes
Cook 3 hours

• 1 cupful of plain flour (about 250g)

• half a cupful of table salt (about 125g)
• half a cupful of water (about 125ml)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to its lowest setting and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

2. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the water and stir until it comes together into a ball.

3. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and shape into your chosen model. You can roll it out and cut out shapes, numbers or letters using biscuit cutters, or make any kind of model you can think of. We made some fruit and veg shapes plus cupcakes for a teddy bear’s picnic.

4. Put your finished items on the lined baking sheet and bake for 3 hrs or until solid.

5. Leave to cool and then paint.