My super secret play-doh recipe!

So I know this blog is supposed to be about decorating cakes in complex and beautiful ways, but I do want give a few of my ideas for fun crafts for kids along the way.  I definitely wasn't planning for my second post to be about making play-doh, but motherhood has taught me to just "go with it" sometimes.

Yesterday the baby unexpectedly took a nap, and I had some one-on-one time with my two year old son.  Sully loves play-doh, and we make it together about once a week.  I love to make things in the kitchen with him, and I think it's a great activity.  I also like making my own play-doh because, like so many kids, Sully eats his play-doh, no matter how much I try to get him to stop.  But if I know the ingredients that were put in it, it's one less thing to worry about. Plus, it saves another kind of dough!

So anyway, yesterday I said, hey do you want to make play-doh?  And of course he freaked out.  Then I was like, why don't I take pictures of us doing this and write a blog post about it?  Making play-doh is pretty much the most basic thing you can do as far as DIY toddler projects, but I seem to see a lot of my mom friends posting on facebook about how they either a) can't find play-doh in the store, or b) need a good recipe for it.  So it seems to me that there is a need out there and I'm happy to share my recipe.

Unfortunately I lied in the title of this post, as my recipe is not super secret, I am pretty sure it's the same recipe a lot of people use, but it's great so that's all that matters.  Here are the ingredients:

1 cup water
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
food coloring
Some people recommend adding glitter. I agree this sounds super fun, unless your kid is like mine and eats the play-doh. Until he stops doing that, I'm going to refrain from adding small bits of broken glass, thank you very much.

The best part is that this is almost impossible to screw up.  I have tried.  I mean after all, I let my toddler measure the ingredients, but the play-doh always turns out great!  You can also easily double or triple the recipe if you want to make it for a play date.

Step One: Mix all the ingredients in a large pot on the stove. I mix them in without the heat on, as Sully uses a little step stool to help me.

Step Two: Turn on medium heat and keep mixing.  At this point I usually try to distract my toddler with something else.  Keep mixing the whole time.

Step Three: It will start to clump (picture three), and when it looks like picture four (i.e. when it looks like play-doh) it's ready to go!  Take it out of the pot and kneed it on the counter.  Sully loves this part.

Step Four: Play!

This photo was literally taken about two minutes after the play-doh finished cooking. Sully could hardly wait for me to finish!

Be sure to store in an air tight container!

Stay tuned as I have a very busy week of baking planned - a birthday cake for Michelle, thanksgiving cupcakes for Sully's daycare party, and then the main event: Thanksgiving dinner! Maybe we can even talk Mr. Sugar Dish into posting his secrets to cooking a Thanksgiving feast? Who's with me???