It is RAINBOW time in our house. Red Ted has shown an interest in colours for a while. He has a tendency to call EVERYTHING blue, but I do believe (!) he knows his colours. Or at least is starting to. A few weeks back I saw these awesome Rainbow Cookies over at Views from my Window. I knew we would be making some very soon. These rainbow coookies would make a lovely St Patrick’s Day Activity, don’t you think!?
I have some amazing natural (!) food dies from the states (look here for more info): they come in basic colours, red, blue and yellow, so basic colour chart theory comes into play. But I am ahead of myself. First the story.
It is rainbow week here at Red Ted Art. And the book we chose to keep for today, was Duckie’s Rainbow.
Duckie’s Rainbow, by Frances Barry. We were already predetermined to like Duckie’s Rainbow: we order one book and 3 arrived + some flashcards (yes, yes evil flashcards, but Red Ted adored them). The publishers must have sent us a promotional pack! Yipee for us! So, Are they any good? We have to say yes. Duckie is hurrying home to avoid the coming rain, he passes through red poppy fields, orange bridges and yellow cornfields. Simply illustrated, with simple text. Great for reading allowed (even Pip Squeak was enthralled). The rainbow takes shape (i.e. the book is rainbow shaped!). We like. The two “free” books are lovely too. Duckie’s Splash and Duckie’s Wish. Both with the same simple illustrations and text. Both picking on an educational them (the first on opposites, the second that everyone has something that makes them special). We like indeed! Definitely for the younger age range though – judging by my children 6mths – 3.5yrs?
We actually made the cookies on the spur of the moment and decided to eat them whilst reading the book. As I used the same recipe as in the last cookie baking session (sorry), I borrowed the ingredients photo.
Rainbow Cookies Recipe :
- 300g flour (2 cups)
- 200g butter (a bit less than 1 cup)
- 100g sugar (1/2 cup)
- vanilla essence (optional),
- food dies, red, yellow, blue
We love this food colouring – US/ UK (affiliate links)
This recipe is in fact very similar to your classic and Easy Shortbread Recipe.
We have a video How To for you… or follow the photo instructions below!
Step by step photo how to make Rainbow Cookies
2) Mix ingredients, devide into 6 balls
3) Mix food colurs – yellow, red, blue. and then yellow & red for orange, red & blue for purple and blue & yellow for green. Older children will enjoy learning about how colours come together! The wonderful about these natural food dies, is that your hands don’t get stained a horrible colour. Also when your baby is “accidently fed” some by the toddler, it isn’t tragic. If you can’t find any, then maybe place dough in freezer bags and mix colours by “bashing/kneading the dough in the bags”. Red Ted had a good go at mixing, but mummy had to finish it off!
4) Cool in fridge for approx 1hr
5) Roll out and stack. Squish stack to make it longer and slice with knife.
6) Place on tray (Red Ted LOVED this step for some reason). Bake at 180 til cooked.
7) Eat & Read. Offer to Opapa, Granny and neighbours!
I hope you will make some and enjoy them too!!!
Fancy making some rainbow cookies yourself? Certainly would cheer up a rainy day!
Rainbow cookies
More great Ideas for St Patrick’s Day!
What others are reading
Pop Up Chick Card for Toddlers to Make
Rainbow Cookie Gift Jar DIY – Shopkins Kooky Inspired
Hooray for Fish – Footprint Fish for Kids
story + art = great stART – Matthew’s Dream & Painting with Kids
Surprise Pinata Rainbow Cake
Easy St Patrick’s Day Crafts for Kids
Summer Lanterns
Rainbow Butterfly Cork Crafts
What fantastic rainbow cookies!! Neat idea!
They look brilliant, will have to see if I can source some over here
These look fantastic! We LOVE rainbows and will definitely give this a try. Thanks so much for sharing!
Mari-Ann
Counting Coconuts
Wow, those look awesome!
Your cookies are amazing!
My daughters love Duckie’s rainbow, I’ll have to show them these cookies and have a go at making some 🙂
Oh yes, do show them the cookies and MOST DEFINITELY make some! Isn’t Duckie’s Rainbow just the most gorgeous book? Red Ted LOVES the word “Indigo” – his favourite bit about the whole book!
Very fun cookies!
These look delicious! And definitely what we need to cheer ourselves up with given all the rain we’ve been having!
What a yummy project! They look really good:)
It must be developmental. My almost-two-year-old likes to call everything “orange”, but she will often get red and blue and even green correct if she’s in the right mood. Cookies look delish!
What a colorful idea!
Love seeing the British spelling! Where are you from?? We are currently living in Scotland.
Emily/Miss Mommy (from TILT)
Hello Hello! We are in London! But am originally Austrian.. so, erm, the spelling may just be typos… then again it could be the British spelling depending on what you are referring to!
I will definitely have to look up this book for my newest little one. It looks fantastic! And I love the cookies, too. Great activity!
I love how the book is shaped like a rainbow. Your treat looks so yummy and colorful. We will thave to try making some this summer. Going to have to look into those natural food dies.
Enjoy!!
The cookies are so cool! They remind of a type of crayon I used when I was little.
Childhood memories are lovely! No?!
We love that book! What a great idea with the cookies! Thanks for sharing.
The more we read the book, the more we love it! Red Ted’s favourite word from it is “Indigo”… Books really do broaden vocabularly!!!
Those cookies look like they would be fun to make. We might have to give those a whirl!
Absolutely! If you have time, send us a photo!
Oh those cookies are amazing. I want to try them. I know my little one would love them. Thanks again for add this to the Round Robin…
Have a great day and weekend..
Pleased to have “found you”! Look forward to mainy more Round Robins!!
They turned out so pretty.
What a grand idea.
Have a great weekend!
How fun! I need to find some of these natural food dyes…. I’d feel much better about using them! What a special treat to share together.
creative, fun, yummy, and educational!
lovely round robin post!
Smiles!
😉
I am not brave yet to try baking with my toddler, but love seeing pictures of your family baking. The colorful cookies are so wonderful, very creative.
Oh you simply must give it ago, your toddler will love it! Even if he just gets to stir!
Those cookies are just adorable. I love all of the colors!
XOXO
jen
Saving this recipe, it’s a great new addition to our Christmas baking, thanks!
I have GOT to try those rainbow cookies! How FUN!
How fun are these!!!! Thanks for linking up this idea with Sweet Charli! Come back again! 🙂
I love these! What a fantastic idea!
These are amazing but do I have the patience? nope:) Good Job!
I will have to send you some!!!!
How cute! The book and the cookies are adorable! Thanks for sharing your post on my Book Sharing Monday.
I love the cookies – they look so yummy. What a great extension of a color book!
They look so fun to make!
Thanks for linking up to the Mad Skills party!
Thanks for helping us have a great Tuesday at Anything Related! ~Bridgette
Love being part of it!! 🙂
This is a fabulous idea! Love how the cookie look and how they go along with the story! Super cute! Love the natural dyes – they are all we use here! Thanks so much for joining the Sunday Showcase! I greatly appreciate it! Hope you have a wonderful week! ~ Stephanie Lynn
Lovely to be part of it! Thanks so much for hosting!!! See you next week!
These look awesome. So delicious!
I am hosting a giveaway and I’d love it if you stopped by!
Laura @ along for the ride
Would love it if you would join me for my 2nd linky party tonight!!
http://lifeinmypjs.blogspot.com/2010/06/pajama-party-2.html
~Ela
You’ve got a great blog here and I absolutely LOVE this idea. I hope you’ll come link it up to My Tot Tuesdays Linky party:
http://www.mydeliciousambiguity.com/
They look delicious1 Thanks for linking up!
Thanks for linking up to Tot Tuesdays! I’ll be featuring you this week so feel free to stop by and grab a Featured Button. Have a great week!
Do you think that any sugar cookie recipe will work? I am havng a hard time wrapping my mind aroudn the grams to cups conversion . . .
😉 yes I am sure they will! As you say, this is “standard” sugar cookie recipe that “works for us”! But am sure any will work… Have fun! x
We love Duckie’s Rainbow and your cookies are so cute! My kids would love this little cooking activity! Thanks for linking up!
Aaah, glad you like! Hope you guys have fun!
Hi! I found your blog off of Today’s Creative Blog! I love your craft! This looks like so much fun! I just signed up to be your newest follower! Woo hoo! I hope you stop by my new blog. I just started it 2 months ago and would love new friends! Please come see me at http://www.modernfamilymagazine.com
-Heather-
Such a brilliant idea, Maggie!
Guess how much I was looking forward to receive our very own parcel of Inida Tree food colouring sent by our common friend in the US!
So we invited some help in form of another two year old and her Mum and mixed and baked away.
Unfortunately our cookies looked completely “Öko” (“earth friendly”?), as we say in German, meaning all colours faded and didn’t pop at all.
Buuuhuu!
The mistake I built in was to use “very healthy” SPELT FLOUR… NO GO!
We’ll try again with ordinary wheat flour next week and I’ll share those photos with you, because the first round were just too sad. 😉
Still love the idea though. 🙂
Thanks again,
Kerstin xx
Gorgeous cookies and a great way to end Jenny’s rainbow summer!
I’ve got to try those when my grandkid come visit this weekend! Thanks for the tip!
How fun is that? Pretty dang fun!
=)
we did something like these once and then rolled them so they looked tie dyed -it was super fuN!
Wow! Those cookies were really beautiful! I bet they tasted as good as they looked!
These look amazing. I bet JDaniel would want to eat one color at a time.
Oh, what a fun post and way to make cookies!
Thanks for linking to Memetales’ Let’s Play . I am excited to feature you and this post with our book too 🙂
What a fun idea! I’m going to have to try this with my boys. Thanks for sharing.
Those were great cookies. Of course, I have no idea how much of each ingredient to use…haha. I would have to use a little math. (American) My grandkids would love them.
What brilliant cookies! They would be so much fun to eat 🙂
What a fantastic idea! I love this! I am sending a link to my daughter-in-law. I know our Grands would adore making these.
Or perhaps we will do them next week when they have a 1/2 day at school along with our caramel apple cupcakes!
Thanks for this wonderful link!
This whole post just made me smile!
A+
These cookies look delicious. What a fabulous idea!
These look great fun, as soon as I fix my scales we will give this a try
Awww, you sound like such a good Mommy…these cookies look like fun!
How fun!! My girls would LOVE making these 🙂
Thanks for sharing on the Smart Summer Challenge!
Brilliant idea. I love those. I just need to find some natural food colouring now! xx
Fantastic idea! My children would love those.
Thank you for linking up to Fun Sparks.
x
Beautiful! The natural dyes are pretty too! Thanks for linking to the Rainbow Connection!
We ordered ‘Duckies rainbow’ especially to do this activity. DS (2yrs) loved it, and we bought the story to life by dramatising it using play silks, a wooden stacking rainbow and a finger puppet duck. When we made the rainbow biscuits, we used natural food colouring from our local supermarket, but unfortunately the colours did not stay when they cooked and they ended up very muted/muddy looking, and had a fun bitter taste from the colouring. So on your recommendation I have just ordered (for an excruciating sum!) some of the India tree natural colourings (with the justification that they will be used to ice the children’s birthday cake for the next 18yrs!!!)
Aaah how lovely! The silks sound like a fantastic addition. Go you! And yes, they ARE expensive, but they are good and no funny after taste!!!!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/414699_470423529670877_270808197_o.jpg
Thank you 🙂 What an awesome way to entertain Miss 3.5.
Fabulous! And your cookies look GREAT!
Yummo! These look delicious. xx
My daughters loves rainbow and we came across your video which we found simple and easy to follow. We made it today and its absolutely yummy and beautiful.
Oh I am so happy you enjoyed making them!!