5 Minute Make - Cloud Dough

If you’re looking for an alternative to play dough, what about cloud dough? When you run your fingers through cloud dough, it is silky and a bit like fine sand, which is probably where its alternative name, “moon sand”, comes from. Little ones certainly have fun scooping and pouring it, as I saw at this month's messy play session. However, when you scrunch some together in your hand, you can also mould the dough. With just three ingredients, you can whip up a batch in no time with items from your kitchen, so within five minutes your little ones have a fun sensory material to explore.

Although some recipes for cloud dough suggest using baby oil, for my recent messy play group in St Bees I used vegetable oil to make it safe if eaten. You can use whatever vegetable oil you have in your cupboard, but rapeseed oil, which is used in most generic vegetable oils, worked well.

Own image

To make cloud dough, simply mix two cups of flour with a quarter of a cup of vegetable oil. For colour, you either need to add powdered food dye to your flour or add oil-based food colouring to your oil before mixing, as standard water-based food colour doesn’t work due to the oil content.

As you can imagine, the cloud dough gets everywhere, so you’re best off placing a tub on a wipe clean surface, putting down an old sheet or taking your kids outside for their sensory play!