Gingerbread Cloud Dough
Last year my kids went crazy for our Hot Chocolate Cloud Dough bin, so I thought I’d make a new Gingerbread Cloud Dough Sensory Bin to surprise them!
Have your kids ever played with cloud dough?
It’s a wonderful alternative to sand – or it’s expensive (but fun!) hybrid, kinetic sand.
It’s a powder-soft dough that clumps together easily to form shapes. It has two main ingredients which are both kitchen staples, making it super easy to whip up when you just need a quick activity to keep the kids happy.
I love to customize our cloud dough to themes or seasons – and since this week’s Virtual Book Club for Kids’ selection is Gingerbread Baby, I thought a gingerbread cloud dough was the perfect choice!
Gingerbread Baby is a sweet picture book from Jan Brett (author of The Mitten and Trouble with Trolls – two of our other favorite winter stories) that puts a happy ending to the classic Gingerbread Man story.
The Scandinavian-style illustrations are one of my favorite things about the book, though kids always love the interactive gingerbread house at the end of the story. It’s a beautiful book to enjoy together for the holidays.
After reading the book together, kids will love digging in and exploring this taste-safe gingerbread cloud dough. You can sit with them and encourage them to describe the texture or engage in some imaginative play with the cloud dough… or take advantage of their complete preoccupation with with the sensory bin and start supper – or just sit back and enjoy a hot coffee in peace!
Materials to Make Gingerbread Cloud Dough
- 8 cups flour
- 1/2 cup cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons ginger
- 1 Tablespoon nutmeg
- 1 Tablespoon allspice
- 2 cups oil (you can use vegetable or baby oil)
Tip: if you don’t have or don’t want to use your other spices, just make sure you add lots of cinnamon!
You can just leave your gingerbread cloud dough as-is or add in some fun items to extend your play. We added:
- A wooden spoon
- Cinnamon sticks
- Jingle Bells
- Buttons
- Cookie Cutters
- Measuring cups
How to Make Gingerbread Cloud Dough
If you want to make the flour taste-safe, preheat an oven to 350F.
Sprinkle the flour on cookie sheets and bake for 5 minutes. Allow to cool before proceeding with making your cloud dough.
Measure out your flour into a large bin. Add enough cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger to make a strong, festive smell. (I gave measurements above for how much I used, but adjust to your personal preferences.)
Add in the oil – vegetable oil keeps this taste-safe while baby oil is usually cheaper.
My daughter wanted to be in charge of stirring it up and she was able to get the dough about 3/4 of the way with a wooden spoon before we had to dig in with our hands and make sure it was really well mixed.
You want a dry dough that clumps well when pressed together. There should be no patches of “just flour” and the dough should not be wet or sticky in the slightest.
I’ve found that first letting the kids dig into the plain sensory bin and then adding in the “add on” items (like the cookie cutters and buttons) after the initial enthusiasm starts to wane is perfect. It keeps them engaged in the activity for longer and they also don’t feel like they have to play with the bin in just the way the items may suggest.
This taste-safe cloud dough lasts forever – my friend actually kept a batch around for a few years without any visible mold growth! Personally, I remove the add-ons and wash them for future use and toss the cloud dough after about a month – but I may be a bit more of a germ-phobe than others.
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Gingerbread Cloud Dough
Kids will love this delicious-smelling, squishy Gingerbread Cloud Dough. You probably have everything you need already in your kitchen for this simple gingerbread cloud dough recipe that is completely taste-safe
Materials
- 8 cups flour
- 1/2 cup cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons ginger
- 1 Tablespoon nutmeg
- 1 Tablespoon allspice
- 2 cups oil (you can use vegetable or baby oil)
Tools
- Large bowl or Storage Bin
- Wooden Mixing Spoon
- Cinnamon sticks
- Jingle Bells
- Buttons
- Cookie Cutters
- Measuring cups
Instructions
- Measure out your flour into a large bin. Add enough cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger to make a strong, festive smell.
- Add in the oil and stir well.
- After stirring as much as you can, check the consistency with your hands and manually mix it up, as needed.
- You want a dry dough that clumps well when pressed together.
- First let the kids dig into the plain sensory bin and then add in the "add on" items after the initial enthusiasm starts to wane.
- This cloud dough lasts forever, but I personally throw ours out after about a month of play.
Notes
If you want to make the flour taste-safe, preheat an oven to 350F.
Sprinkle the flour on cookie sheets and bake for 5 minutes. Allow to cool before proceeding with making your cloud dough.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Jingle Bells, 200PCS Craft Bells 0.5 inch Multi-Color Bulk DIY Bells for Christmas Festival Wreath Decor Holiday Home Decor -
Amazon Brand - Happy Belly Cinnamon Sticks, Whole, 1.5 Ounces
-
McCormick Ground Cinnamon, 7.12 oz
-
Amazon Brand - Happy Belly Vegetable Oil, 48 Fl Oz
-
365 by Whole Foods Market, Flour, All-Purpose, 5 Pound
Check out these other wonderful Gingerbread Baby-inspired activities for kids:
Please please toast your flour before doing this. Raw flour = E Coli risk!!
absolutely – this is mentioned in the blog post but not the “recipe card”; I’ll make a note to update the recipe card for those who just skim the post.
How do you recommend storing it?? Thanks!
Hi Kate,
Great question! This really depends on how many children are using the sensory bin and how much bacteria is being introduced to the bin – either by unclean hands or little tasters.
Freezing or reheating the flour will kill off bacteria and allow the sensory bin to be used for longer. Since I have 5 kids all from different homes using the bin, I tend to wash the toys each day (or every other day) and empty the flour/oil mixture into a large ziptop bag and freeze until we play again. This gets me at least one month of play, before I change out the sensory bin for something new.
If you don’t have the option of freezing or reheating the flour mixture, I would toss it after 1-2 weeks to be safe. (It might be safe longer than that – especially if the kids’ hands are clean, but I tend to be overcautious.)
Can I make it and then put it in a zip lock bag and store it room temp overnight till I bring it to school and put it in the sensory bin there?
Hi Catherine,
Sorry for the delay – had a sick kid for a couple of weeks over here.
Yes, it can be stored at room temperature for a couple of days so that would be absolutely fine.