Candy Cane Activities - Candy Cane Cloud Dough

Candy Cane Cloud Dough - Christmas Recipe for Play

Yesterday I shared candy cane sensory play, the first of many candy cane activities you will find here at Learn~Play~Imagine this Christmas season.  Why?  My kids love candy canes.  They would probably rather eat candy canes than play with candy cane inspired materials, but since I prefer to keep sugar and artificial coloring to a minimum, candy cane play activities is a happy compromise.  This Christmas recipe for play is incredibly simple to make, and all the ingredients can be found at your local grocery store.  The best part about this recipe for candy cane cloud dough is that I actually used old cloud dough to make it, extending the use of our materials.  While I fully support and encourage sensory play and exploration, I loathe waste and work hard to stretch our materials as much as possible.  Cloud dough is one of my very favorite recipes for play, simple because it has such a long shelf life.  We have made two ingredient multisensory cloud dough, summer scented cloud dough, day and night sensory bins with cloud dough, and cloud dough heart cakes to name a few.  This candy cane cloud dough recipe is now right at the top of our list of favorites!

How to Make Candy Cane Cloud Dough

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Supplies:

• flour
• cooking oil
• Duncan Hines Peppermint Stick Frosting Creations

Please note:  Frosting creations can be purchased in grocery stores for $1-$2 per packet, depending on the store.

Directions:  I am going to share two options for making candy cane cloud dough.  The first recipe is what I used.

We have been playing with this summer scented cloud dough since July.  Instead of making a completely new batch I had the idea to turn the summer cloud dough into candy cane cloud dough.  The summer dough was a pretty shade of orange.  JZ (6) and I added four packets of peppermint stick frosting creations to the summer batch and mixed well with our hands.  The result was a gorgeous reddish pink shade with a strong peppermint scent.

Next I mixed roughly four cups of flour with 1/2 cup of cooking oil and layered the red and white cloud dough in candy cane stripes.

If starting from scratch I would have mixed only two packets of the peppermint stick frosting creations with four cups of flour and a half a cup of oil to achieve the red peppermint cloud dough.

It didn't take long for the white and red to mix into a lovely shade of light pink.  The peppermint scent was magnificent.  This recipe for play definitely reminded the boys of Christmas!

Trouble shooting the cloud dough recipe:  Cloud dough should be moldable and stick together a bit, but it shouldn't have an oily texture.  If it falls apart too easily, add some oil.  If it feels too wet, add more flour.  Store in an airtight container when not in use, and cloud dough lasts forever.  Our batches get smaller due to little spills during play, but other than losing bits here and there our cloud dough recipes last indefinitely.  The dough eventually loses it's scent, but usually it's after the season has passed.

Tip: Cloud dough is very messy. I recommend playing with it outdoors. Here are my best tips and tricks for messy play as well as laundry tips to avoid stains. I have never had an issue with oil stains from cloud dough. I always add a drop or two of Dawn to the wash load after play as a precaution.

For more candy cane activities and Christmas recipes for play follow me on Pinterest.

More Christmas recipes for play:

Peppermint Oats ~ Two Ingredient Paint Recipe ~ Candy Cane Sensory Play