Kids Crafts: Edible Books
I confess.. I made this one evening, when the kids where asleep. Mainly because I was having PC troubles and needed to do something else. So something else I did make. But the kids got to eat them? And no reason why you can’t make these together…
First our story:
Pancake, Pancakes! by Eric Carle
Pancake, Pancakes! is the story about Jake who wakes up and wants pancakes for breaksfast (don’t all children want pancakes for breakfast every day???). I love this story, as whenever the children and I cook (well bake) together, I always ask the same question that “Jake’s mum asks” -“Well… what do we need first?”…. Jake’s mother however takes it one step further – Jake has to go and cut the wheat… go to the mill, collect the eggs, fetch milk from the cows, get butter, firewood etc etc. Love that it teaches children how to make pancakes, but also about were “everyday items” come from (and maybe also a little about how easy our lives are… we just go to the supermarket!!!).
The “Craft”
I thought pancakes would make a GREAT book page – as they are nice and floppy! Also you could argue that the “mottled look”, gives it that “old book feel”… I made the book covers, by adding lots of cocoa powder.
Ingredients:
- 200g Flour
- 2 eggs
- approx. 250ml milk
- 1-2 tsp cocoa powder & 2 tsp of sugar (to sweeten the cocoa)
- Jam
- Food colours for writing & a paint brush
Either us my recipe or use your own favourite cocoa powder recipe!
To make the books I needed 1.5 chocolate pancakes (I made normal round one, and the remainder of batter was enough for a rectangular shaped one) and 2.5 regular pancakes.
1) Fry your regular pancakes. When done, add 1-2 tsp of cocoa powder to your remaining mixture. Just see how dark it looks and if you need more, add a little more. Add a little sugar, as cocoa isn’t that sweet. Fry your chocolate pancakes.
2) Once cooled, cut out a book cover. Really, I did mine by estimate.
3) Then using your book cover as a guide, cut out some “pages” from your regular pancake. I did 4 in each of ours.
4) Write your message in your books with food colouring and a paint brush and let dry. I wrote “I (heart) You” and “You Are a (Star)”. Write one word on each page.
5) Using some nail scissors I cut out a heart and star you may want to use a template first – and prick a rough “pattern” to cut out. I did my heart by “guess work” and did the star “having pricked out all the corners first”.
6) Heat some jam in the microwave – I may try chocolate spread next time as I think it is stickier. “Glue in your you pages and cover page using the jam. I used raspberry jam for the heart book and apricot jam for the star book.
7) Use the “scraps” to make mini edible books.
8. EAT!
I have to say – the kids were fascinated by the message written inside.. even Pip Squeak (2yrs) pointed to each page and showed me what was on it. I “read it out” for her. Lovely!
If you have made any edible books! Go and visit Zoe and join in the edible book fun. For all other crafts:
Join the Kids Get Crafty linky party! Each week Creative with Kids and Red Ted Art host this kids craft linky, bringing you more readers and more ideas to browse!
Disclaimer: by joining the Kids Get Crafty linky – you give us permission to highlight any projects on Red Ted Art and Creative with Kids or share your craft ideas on Pintrest – we will always link to your site!
If you have been crafty with your kid’s be it at home, in the kitchen or outdoors, please link up!
I would love to see what you have made! And would love to see your edible books too of course!