Well… welcome back to another week of Kids Crafts – this week we have some EDIBLE BOOKS! Yes, that is right.. books you can EAT! And I even wrote a little message in ours! Can you believe it? And what brought me to this crazy fun idea? Well.. the wonderful Zoe at Playing By the Book put me up to it – did you know there is an Edible Book festival EVERY year? Yep! There is. Book loving people come together and create either edible things relating to books or an edible book itself. Wonderful. There is a whole gallery over at Zoe’s for you to check out. In the meantime, I bring you our edible book.
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!
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I would love to see what you have made! And would love to see your edible books too of course!
Lovely to see the whole process and relive it all! Can I put in an order please for when we do finally manage to meet in person? 🙂 Thank you so much for taking part in the festival and helping it go with such a swing.
What a fun thing to join! Your books turned out really cute- you are so creative 🙂
Honestly Maggy, your ideas are beyond genius! x
Oh, this is so great. I will make these for my son\’s birthday party. He is a real booklover. Thank you so much for this idea!
They are so sweet. Look tasty too.
I haven\’t read that book before, looks a good one though.
Ooh I pop out for the nursery run and come back to all these lovely comments! Thank you ladies! The children ADORED them and I am sure we will give them another go!
I loved your entry Maggy and I was wondering how you\’d done the covers – cocoa, completely simple and genius! Will definitely be trying this with Milo, he loves making pancakes and reading Pancakes, Pancakes! 🙂
What a great idea – I love pancakes and think I would have to eat them all to myself LOL must remember that book for next Shrove Tuesday
It was indeed pancake day that made me think of them! A
nd ooh yes, they do look Harry Potter-esque, don’t they?!
These would be great for a Harry Potter party 🙂
Or Halloween as a book of spells 🙂
Oh how yummy – I\’d be tempted not to let anyone eat them though lol.
Those books are adorable, and brilliant!
What a fun and yummy idea! 🙂
Your post made me smile Maggy! Edible books:-) I would have never thought of that!
So glad you guys are enjoying our fun post today!!!! Thanks for all the lovely comments.
I love the edible book idea!I think I would have a hard time having them be eaten! I will have to do this with my son! He will love it! Thanks!
What a clever idea! My kids would love this!
Fantastic! Love it. Going to do this with the girls in the holidays 🙂
Absolutely loved it, Maggy. They turned out really neat with that \’old book look\’! The edible book event sounds so unique and intriguing. I\’ll hop over to Zoe\’s blog to check.
And, thanks for introducing this bsok by Eric Carle. We haven\’t read it yet….
This is so cute! I can\’t wait to try this out with my cuties! Thanks for all of your fantastic ideas!!
Your book is soooo clever! What a wonderful idea 🙂
Love these! What a great idea, can\’t wait to have a go. Ellie
These are so cool. They have an aged look about them, like they came right out of a Harry Potter film!
Wow! Those are impressive. Before I read the description I was trying to figure out what you made them out of. I was thinking cheese……
LOVE these so much! I am a fan of both pancakes & books so this just made my heart swell! I am totally giving it a try & soon!
I knew they were yours as soon as I saw them on Play By the Book! They are AMAZING!!!
Sorry, I haven\’t been keeping up with all your wonderful comments! Every single one is VERY much appreciated! So chuffed you all like the books! Happy Eating!!
@Emma you know me too well! 😉
I absolutely love this idea! Anything that has to do with eating food, is a must for my son! I can\’t wait to try these!
Love, love, love these! My oldest daughter loves books and I\’m definitely going to have to try these for her! Thanks for linking to Fun Stuff Fridays on Toys In The Dryer!
So pleased!! Let me know how yours taste!
What a fantastic idea!! I don\’t think you can possibly go wrong with books and food!
Now that\’s one way to finish a book! Yum. Our library hosts an edible book contest where you must have an edible creation to fit with the theme or the name (etc) of a book. I like the Rainbow Fish pops they would have been fabulous but it\’s too late for me to enter now!
I couldn\’t help but giggle my way through reading this blog! It\’s so outrageous but so cool at the same time. Love it! Thanks for linking up to the Kids Co-op!
Maggy, seriously?! Those books are AWESOME! Featuring them in the next For the Kids link party!!!
Ooh thank you! Do appreciate a feature 🙂
This is such a great idea! I love it x