With just two simple ingredients, you can enjoy countless hours of fun with this vibrant edible playdough recipe. This playdough is a great way to engage in sensory play that works for kids of all ages because it is taste-safe! Throw in some cookie cutters and a rolling pin and you’ll have hours of beneficial playtime for all the kids!
Playdough can be about as controversial a topic for parents as slime. You love it or hate it.
I get it, it’s messy, gets everywhere, and every kid tries to eat it at least once. Plus, there is no way to keep kids from mixing colors and gross brown playdough is kind of the worst.
I know I can’t solve all of those problems, but I can at least give you a fun recipe that the kids can eat without you having to worry about it! The only problem is they might love this delicious recipe so much that they forget to play with it!
As for the rest, let’s face it, kids are messy. especially younger children. This homemade edible playdough gives them a structured activity to get messy that they will love.
You can always throw a plastic tablecloth down underneath them for easy clean-up. Or share this recipe with grandma and let her deal with it.
Now that we are all on team playdough, let me tell you why this homemade playdough recipe is the best. It only uses two ingredients; frosting and icing sugar, that’s it. All the fun you could ever want for less than three dollars!
The best part is this easy playdough recipe can be used for a bunch of different things. Bust out this recipe on a rainy day when you need indoor activities, add it to your boredom busters jar, or make it a birthday party activity. Both young children and older kids will have so much fun with this easy at-home activity.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Two ingredients - I know you’ve read this already but you can’t beat something that only needs two ingredients!
- Taste-safe – another major selling point that makes it fun for everyone, even small children with little hands.
- Customizable - use whatever color food colouring you want to make it fit for your family. You can even add sprinkles or edible glitter to the dough.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Frosting – white frosting is best, otherwise, you will have a hard time getting the colors bright. Any type of white frosting works, I just used what was cheapest.
- Food coloring – I tested with both gel and drops of food coloring. I personally thought the liquid drops gave it a more vibrant color. The gel food coloring took way more coloring and the color was not nearly as bright. But if you only have gel food coloring, it’ll work.
- Sprinkles – feel free to remove them or swap these out for chocolate chips or edible glitter. I suggest not using little sprinkles because the color just bleeds into the dough. Try larger sprinkles like these fun ones!
Tip!
Don’t want brown playdough? Simply skip the food coloring altogether or only use different colors that blend together, like blue and yellow. Then they can get to mix their own green playdough for extra fun.
How to make fun edible playdough
Make your own play dough by following these simple steps. You’ll be surprised by how easy it is to make. You can also find the full recipe at the bottom of the page on the recipe card.
1 – Make The Playdough
Start by putting half cup of frosting into five separate bowls (you can use fewer bowls if you are making fewer colors, but keep the quantity the same).
I recommend using a medium or large bowl so you can mix in the other ingredients without spilling everywhere. You’ll also need a different spoon to mix each color, or at least need to wash the spoon between each color so they don’t mix together.
Add one drop of each color of food coloring into four separate bowls. For example use pink in one bowl, blue in one bowl, yellow in one bowl, and green in another. There should be five bowls of different colored frosting.
In the last bowl with white frosting, mix in one-fourth of a cup of sprinkles or edible glitter. You can also leave it white or make it any other color.
2 – Knead The Playdough
Now that all the frosting is colored, add one cup of powdered sugar to each bowl of frosting. It is easiest to add one half-cup at a time then stir and add another half-cup so you don’t make a huge mess.
After the cup of confectioners sugar has been added it should start to form a dough. Slowly add in the remaining half cup a little at a time until you get the desired texture. You may not use all of the final half-cup and that’s okay.
After the frosting has become a dough and it’s not sticky anymore then roll it out onto a clean surface and start to knead it until the dough is smooth.
3 – Mold and play
Pull out your cookie cutters and other playdough toys and watch as your kids have a great time with this homemade edible play dough recipe. And you don’t have to worry about if they accidentally do a little taste test of this fun DIY playdough – it’s totally safe to eat.
Expert Tips And Storage Info
To avoid extra mess on your kitchen table, consider putting a plastic tablecloth down or having them play on a cookie sheet.
You can use your own frosting without any issues. Using any extra you have from another project is a great idea, instead of throwing it out. The powered sugar quantity may be impacted so just keep adding powdered sugar 1/4 a cup at a time until you reach that soft playdough consistency.
This homemade play dough recipe is best when used at room temperature. It can melt when hot and be hard to mold when cold.
Because it is made with food ingredients it can only be stored for three days at room temperature and in an airtight container. If you put it in the fridge it will last longer but will need to be brought to room temperature before use.
Recipe FAQs
Edible playdough will last three days at room temperature or up to a week in the fridge. If you do put it in the fridge make sure to give it time to warm up before you play with it.
No, most playdough is not edible! While most are labeled as non-toxic, it’s not the same as edible. It may not be toxic, but it’s still not good to eat normal playdough. That’s why this edible playdough is so fun to make and play with!
With close adult supervision, you can let them play with it as early as you are comfortable. Otherwise, I would recommend waiting until they are safely feeding themselves since it can be a choking hazard simply because they’re not used to eating anything.
More Easy Activities for Kids
If you want more fun things to do with the kids, try one of these fun kid activities!
- Ladybug rock painting – see how to paint rocks together to look like cute little ladybugs!
- Fall art activities – these fun fall art projects are great to do with even the littlest kiddos!
- Ocean sensory bin – another taste-safe activity that will have kids enjoying some ocean fun for hours!
- Christmas handprint crafts – tons of cute holiday projects you can make with your kids handprints!
- Felt pizza – this fun craft is easy for kids to make then play with all day long!
- Boredom busters – over 50 awesome boredom buster ideas for those times when you guessed it, kids are bored!
Easy Edible Playdough
Ingredients
- 2 ½ Cups white frosting (divided)
- 4-6 Drops 4 different food colorings
- ¼ Cup Sprinkles
- 8 Cups confectioners sugar (divided)
Instructions
- Start by putting one half cup of frosting into five separate bowls.2 1/2 Cups white frosting
- Add one drop of each color of food coloring into four separate bowls. There should be five bowls of different colored frosting.4-6 Drops 4 different food colorings
- In the last bowl with white frosting mix in one fourth of a cup of sprinkles.1/4 Cup Sprinkles
- Add a cup of confectioners sugar to each bowl of frosting. If the frosting still seems too sticky add a little more confectioners sugar at a time until it’s not sticky anymore.8 Cups confectioners sugar
- Roll the dough out onto the counter and start to knead it until the dough is smooth.
- The playdough is now finished! Once you are done playing with the play dough, store it in the refrigerator.
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