Favourite Craft Recipes

Playdough Recipe 1

Playdough Recipe 2

Put all ingredients into a saucepan, and stir while cooking over a medium heat until the desired consistency is obtained.

(Keeps well in an air tight container - not fridge)

Mix flour and salt together.

Add hand lotion, oil and water. Mix well and knead until dough is smooth.

(This is a pliable pleasant-smelling dough which keeps well)

Salt Dough Recipe

Mix the flour and the salt together and then stir in the water.   Knead the dough together adding small drops of extra water  if necessary to make a smooth but not sticky dough.

Once the dough has come together turn it out onto a flat surface and continue to knead it for about 10 minutes by which time the dough should be warm, soft and pliable.

Bird Cake

You will need:

Dripping or Lard
Wild bird seed
Apple
Bread
Old yoghurt pot or plastic drinking cup
Piece of string about 50 cm long

Carefully pierce a hole in the bottom of either the yoghurt pot or drinking cup, (whichever you are using), and thread part of the string through so that there is a enough left poking through the bottom to tie into a big enough knot that won't go back up through the hole when tugged gently

Chop up the apple and the bread into smallish pieces and put to one side. In a heavy based saucepan melt the dripping or lard, as soon as it is liquid remove from the heat and start to add some of the bird seed, apple and bread. Make sure that there is a good proportion of fat to seed etc, otherwise the cake is too crumbly. When you feel the mixture is the right consistency fill up the pot or cup keeping the string reasonably upright. When the pot is full there may be a pool of fat on the top, just sprinkle on some extra seed.

You may get some drips of fat out of the hole in the bottom of the pot, to stop this plunge the pot half way up in cold water, this solidifies the fat.

When cold, hang the cake out in the garden, you can leave the pot on or carefully cut and peel it off.