In our household we LOVE messy play and the best part about this activity is it is completely safe for little mouths. This edible mud idea is not only easy to set up at home but is perfect for educational settings too.
Don’t forget to check out our other home learning ideas.
We’ve used our edible mud to create Old McDonald’s farm and a building site, but ideas for this are endless! As it’s mold-able, it’s so versatile!
We recommend using a tuff tray for the edible mud. If you don’t have one then split a rubbish bag and lay it on the floor (adult supervision at all times!). This makes it super easy to tidy up afterwards.
Making Edible Mud
To make the edible mud you’ll need:
- flour (bake it for 5 minutes at 175°C to kill any germs)
- cocoa powder
- edible oil (sunflower, vegetable, olive oil – they all work).
Getting the proportions right is really simple. Just remember the 7:1 ratio. 7 portions of dry to 1 portion of wet. In other words, 7 portions of flour/cocoa to 1 portion of oil. This means you can vary the amount you need simply by changing the container. There’s no need to spend time measuring out. It’s also really forgiving so you can add more flour or oil if the mixture is too wet or dry.
For our mud, we used 1 cup of cocoa powder, 6 cups of plain flour and 1 cup of vegetable oil.
To make it, place the cocoa powder and flour together in a bowl. Then added the oil in little by little mixing it as I went. The end result should be a silky mixture which can be molded. Couldn’t be simpler right?!
You can also replace the cup of cocoa powder for another cup of flour to make edible sand!
6 comments
The flour should be baked at 350 degrees for five minutes before using it in any application where there is a chance children could eat raw flour. Edible dough is so much fun and a great sensory experience for toddlers. This recipe looks like so much fun but to keep it safe the flour needs to be baked.
Thanks for this 🙂 I’ve updated the post.
My boys enjoyed hiding plastic insects in the mud for hibernation. The recipe was so easy! Thank you
Ahh great idea!!
Can you store it for future use? If so, for how long? Thanks so much for this easy sensory play idea!
All of the ingredients have a long shelf life so technically, they should last a while in an airtight container (keeping away from moisture). However, I’d err on the side of caution with it being edible as your little one will be playing with it and introducing germs that they’re then possibly going to put into their mouth :-).