Create fake food with simple and cheap-to-make salt dough. Then, bake or let the pretend food items air dry. Paint your creations with craft paint and make embellishments with felt scraps, construction paper or seeds for a realistic look.
Salt Dough Recipe
Things You'll Need
1 cup salt
2 cups flour
3/4 cup water
Large mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
Step 1
Mix salt and flour together in a large mixing bowl.
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Step 2
Gradually add in the water and stir with the wooden spoon. Continue mixing until the dough forms.
Step 3
Lay the dough out on a floured surface and knead until it's fully combined and pliable.
Drying Salt Dough
Salt dough can either be air dried or baked in the oven. To bake it, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Lay the dough pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Baking time varies depending on the size and thickness of the pieces. You'll know they've dried when they start to turn white in color. Check salt dough crafts every 10 minutes while they're baking, and don't allow the edges to brown.
Salt Dough Pizza
Things You'll Need
Salt dough
Rolling pin
Plastic knife
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Red craft paint
Craft paint brush
Felt scraps -- yellow, red, black, brown and green
Scissors
Step 1
Roll a ball of dough on a floured surface and flatten it into a circular shape. Roll it until the circle is approximately 1/4-inch thick.
Step 2
Use the plastic knife to cut out triangular "pizza slices."
Step 3
Bake the pizza slices. Remove them from the oven when done and let them cool completely.
Step 4
Paint the "sauce" on the pizza slices with red craft paint. Allow it to dry.
Step 5
Cut out "toppings" from craft felt. You can either glue the felt toppings to the pizza slices or leave them loose for children to top the slices over and over again as a game.
- Cut curved green strips for peppers.
- Cut red circles for pepperoni.
- Make small yellow strips for cheese.
- Cut out brown and black circles for mushrooms and olives.
Tip
Use construction paper if you don't have craft felt to make pizza embellishments.
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Salt Dough Bakery Items
Things You'll Need
Salt dough
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Craft paints in red, yellow and black
Paint brushes
Clear craft glue
Clear, high-gloss varnish
Step 1
Mold the salt dough into various bakery items.
- Make a cinnamon roll by rolling out a snake and making a spiral.
- Make a loaf of french bread by making a long, hot dog roll shape and scoring diagonal slices across the top.
- Make a pull-apart poppy seed roll by rolling five little balls. Place one ball in the middle and stick the other balls all around the sides.
- Make a hamburger bun by rolling two balls. Flatten out one ball completely to be the bottom half of the bun. Flatten the bottom of the other to make the top of the bun.
- Make donut rings.
Step 2
Bake the salt dough pieces.
Step 3
When cooled, paint the pieces in your colors of choice to look like pastries.
Tip
Glue real poppy seeds on pull-apart rolls and sesame seeds on hamburger buns with clear glue.
Step 4
As a finishing touch, coat pastry pieces with clear, high-gloss varnish to create a glaze look.
Salt Dough Cookies
Things You'll Need
Salt dough
Rolling pin
Flour
Cookie cutters
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Craft paint in various colors
Paint brushes
Glitter
Step 1
Roll out the dough onto a floured surface with a rolling pin.
Step 2
Cut out cookie shapes with cookie cutters.
Step 3
Bake the cookies.
Step 4
Decorate them to look like sugar cookies with craft paint and glitter.
Tip
To turn the cookies into hanging ornaments, poke a hole near the top with a chopstick before baking. After decorating, thread a piece of ribbon through the hole.