Recipes and food-based activities

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Armpit fudge!
Here's something a bit different: making fudge in your armpit! What? In reality, this is more like a fudge sauce than actual fudge, but it tastes delicious and the method of making it has that gross-out factor that really appeals to kids. (For those of a more sensitive disposition, you can use your hands to achieve the same effect.)

Elastic slime 
This is so brilliant - you must have a go at making it! The elastic slime is the most amazing substance - you can pour it or pull it or snap it, but left on its own it returns to a blob. Kids of all ages just can't keep their hands off it.

Frozen banana penguins
This simple, albeit rather messy, activity should be suitable for children of any age. The banana penguins look so cute and will hopefully encourage the children to eat a bit of fruit for a change!

Edible beach 
What about making a beach that the children can then eat? Biscuit crumbs, blue jelly, appropriately shaped sweets and lots of imagination all combine to create a beach scene. The children can make individual ones, or share ideas to create a larger scene.

Piggy bread
These piggy bread rolls look super cute and would be a perfect treat to accompany any pig-themed events or just because!

More recipes and food-based activities

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Armpit fudge!
Here's something a bit different - making fudge in your armpit! What? In reality, this is more like a fudge sauce than actual fudge, but it tastes delicious and the method of making it has that gross-out factor that really appeals to kids. (For those of a more sensitive disposition, you can use your hands to achieve the same effect.)

Campfire popcorn
This is a fun activity for all ages, and can be enjoyed outside over a campfire, or done indoors by cooking the popcorn over tealights. (Do remember to take proper safety precautions when using naked flames.)

Chick cake toppers
These cake toppers made from fondant icing look really cute and are perfect for decorating cupcakes or other Easter-themed treats. You can use the same technique to make (non-edible!) chicks from other modelling materials such as Fimo and Plasticine.

Chocolate marshmallow snowmen
These snowmen, created from marshmallows, white chocolate and some sweets for decoration, are so cute and are a real hit with the children.

Chocolate stirrers
These chocolate stirrers are great as a treat for the children on dark winter evenings, or to make as gifts. They look good, taste good and are incredibly easy to make.

Chocolate truffles
These chocolate truffles are absolutely delicious and are very easy to make. They are ideal gifts for a wide range of seasonal themes: Easter, Mother's Day, Christmas etc. But we cannot lie to you—they are very messy!

Cucumber Christmas trees
Using just cucumber, carrot and cheese, these tasty snacks look great and are so easy to make. They offer a welcome contract to the usual sugar overload of Christmas party food for children.

Cup cakes
Easy to make and easy to decorate. Great for fundraisers too.

Decorated Valentine's biscuits
These biscuits are great for Valentine's Day: they can be used as gifts or decorations, and with the golden syrup, will keep for up to two weeks. You can use the same recipe to make Christmas tree decorations.

Digestive biscuit Christmas puddings
This is a very simple activity that even the youngest children can do - make a fun Christmas pudding from a chocolate digestive biscuit.

Diwali sweets
These sweets, called peda, are traditionally eaten during Diwali and are very simple to make.

Dracula's false teeth
These false teeth are so easy to make and look very effective. The children really enjoyed making them, and then enjoyed eating them even more!

Grinch fruit skewers
If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the sugary offerings during the Christmas season, what about making these simple Grinch fruit skewers with the kids? Quick and easy to make, as well as being healthy.

Easter nests
This is a great variation on the traditional chocolate nest, sticky and fun to make, and very tasty to eat.

Easy chocolate fudge
A very easy, 'no cook' recipe for making fudge. Ideal for the children to make as gifts, to sell at fundraising events, or just for eating! Always very popular.

Easy mini pizzas
Kids love making pizzas, and this pizza dough recipe doesn't even need to be left to rise so the dough is ready in minutes. Ideal for when you're pressed for time and have a bunch of hungry children to feed!

Edible beach 
What about making a beach that the children can then eat? Biscuit crumbs, blue jelly, appropriately shaped sweets and lots of imagination all combine to create a beach scene. The children can make individual ones, or share ideas to create a larger scene.

Edible Christmas trees
These Christmas trees are really cheap to make (essentially they just use a green-coloured krispie cake mix) but they look so festive. Ideal for Christmas parties at your club!

Edible elves
These cute veggie characters provide an attractive alternative to more sugary Christmas treats. They are not only very easy to make but they also look really pretty on the snack table.

Edible sparklers
This is a very simple but enjoyable way to engage children in the fun of Bonfire Night, without the headache and anxiety of actual fireworks. Basically just bread sticks dipped in chocolate, the sparklers are very easy for even the youngest children to make.

Elf doughnuts
These teeny tiny 'doughnuts' were a huge hit with the children - although they are admittedly a bit fiddly to make. Ideal for little fingers!

Frozen banana penguins
This simple, albeit rather messy, activity should be suitable for children of any age. The banana penguins look so cute and will hopefully encourage the children to eat a bit of fruit for a change!

Ghosts on sticks
A Hallowe'en variation on the iced-biscuit theme. These are fun to make and look great when decorated. You can use icing or white chocolate to cover the biscuits to get the necessary ghostly appearance.

Gruesome fingers
These gruesome finger biscuits look perfectly horrible but are sure to appeal to the children! Ideal to make with the children for your club's Hallowe'en party (or for at home).

Iced biscuits
Infinitely versatile biscuit dough recipe that can be transformed into any seasonally themed activity by the use of different-shaped cookie cutters and some coloured icing!

Jelly worms
These jelly worms are easy to make, entertaining (or revolting, depending on your point of view) to extract from the straws, and repulsively life-like. There was a great deal of shrieking and cries of "Eeuww!" when we produced these at our club. Perfect for a Hallowe'en party. We served ours up in little bowls of chocolate Angel Delight for the exta 'yuk' factor.

Juice bar
This is a good activity for warm summer afternoons, and can be done just as easily indoors or out. And using fresh fruit and fruit juice also means that you can tick the 'promoting healthy eating' box with Ofsted.

Marshmallow pops
These white chocolate marshmallow pops are so easy to make, but look fantastic. If you can stop the children from eating them straightaway you can put a couple in a cellophane bag tied with some red ribbon to make perfect gifts for Valentine's Day.

Marshmallow bunnies
Here's a fun activity: Easter bunnies made of marshmallows! They're cute and edible - what's not to like? They are a tad fiddly to assemble so you can't rush them, but the finished bunnies look (and taste) great.

Melting snowmen
The children will love making these super-cute melting snowmen biscuits. And will also love eating them afterwards! They were a big hit with our testing panel.

Meringue ghosts 
Very, very easy activity. It's not really cooking, just decorating and assembling. The ghosts look great when made but give the children a major sugar high so be sure to ration these to one per child!

Mini Christmas cakes
Some fun little Christmas cakes for the children to make as gifts for their parents. They look very Christmas-y dressed up with ribbons and icing—and taste good too (quickly brushes crumbs off desk).

Mini Christmas puddings
Very attractive 'Christmas puddings' created from marshmallows, chocolate and some decorations. Slightly more fiddly than some of our other recipes but fun nonetheless.

Mini toffee apples
These mini toffee apples look like the real thing but are only a couple of bites big so they're not too sickly. They're easy enough to make, but make sure you keep a close eye on the children around the hot toffee while they are coating the apples.

Mummy pizzas 
Ideal for the children to make for a Halloween-themed tea party. Very quick and easy.

Outdoor cooking
This falls somewhere between an activity and a recipe. Tips and suggestions for cooking outdoors, whether with a barbecue, fire bowl or camping stove, plus a couple of very basic recipes to get you started.

Painted Valentine's biscuits
This is an unusual way to decorate basic biscuits using a coloured, egg-based glaze. You can paint patterns and messages onto heart-shaped cookies. Thread the finished biscuit onto a red ribbon for a personalised Valentine's gift.

Piggy bread
These piggy bread rolls look super cute and would be a perfect treat to accompany any pig-themed events.

Popcorn confetti
Home-made popcorn is so cheap to make, but mixed with white chocolate and colourful sweets and then packaged nicely, it becomes a lovely treat for Valentine's Day (or any other special event). Share the love!

Rainbow cookies
These cookies are incredibly cute so are very popular with our children. Creating the biscuit shape can be a little fiddly, but you don't have to be too precise.

Reindeer gingerbread 
This clever reworking of the basic gingerbread man shape into a cute reindeer caused great excitement and delight with the children at our club. If you don't have the time to make your own gingerbread men you can always take the easy option and buy them ready-made. But if you do make your own, you could punch a hole in the top before baking and then thread a ribbon through the finished reindeer biscuit so that it can be used as a tree ornament.

Red, white and blue krispie cakes 
Who wants boring plain rice krispie cakes when you could have red, white and blue ones? Perfect for any royal occasion!

Red, white and blue strawberries 
If you're planning a tea party to celebrate the Royal Wedding (or any other national occasion), what about making some patriotic strawberries? They're really easy to do and look amazing!

Sausages on strings 
With the summer weather comes outdoor cooking, and these sausages on strings are fun to make and to eat. Perfect for bonfire night parties too!

Strawberry Santas
At Christmas time it's very easy for the children to slip into a sugar overload, so these fruit-based Christmas characters provide a welcome alternative.

Teddy biscuits
Clever variant on the basic iced biscuits idea. Great fun to make and very popular with the children.  

Tic tac toe biscuits
The tic tac toe biscuits are really easy to make and last up to two weeks in an airtight container (in theory). Should the winner of the game get to eat the biscuit? That is the question!

Werewolf paws
These werewolf paw cookies are very simple to make and are a real hit with the children. Perfect for a Hallowe'en party at your club.  

Recipes for play and craft materials

Elastic slime 
This is so brilliant - you must have a go at making it! The elastic slime is the most amazing substance - you can pour it or pull it or snap it, but left on its own it returns to a blob. Kids of all ages just can't keep their hands off it.

Home made snow
How often have you wished for snow, but the weather wouldn't oblige? Well here's a great way to make it yourself! It's quite messy but appeals to children of all ages (even teenagers!) and you can add a bit of a science experiment onto the end of the activity if you like.

Home made baked dough
This baked dough recipe is a cheap alternative to Fimo. Despite using small quantities of ingredients you can make a surprisingly large number of shapes, which can be adapted to make gifts or decorations. We used the dough to make Mother's Day gifts and Easter decorations, but you could use it for any festival or celebration.

Moon sand
When you mention moon sand, most parents think of small quantities of browny/purple mush, trodden into their carpets. However when you make it yourself in large quantities moon sand works really well as an outdoor activity, and appeals to a surprisingly wide range of ages! 

Cornflour gloop
Amazingly tactile substance which attracts older children just as much as the little ones.

Play dough
Make your own supply of play dough in your own choice of colours.

Salt dough
Ideal for modelling, making decorations etc. Decorate them with paint, sequins etc. This recipe cooks in just 4 minutes in a microwave rather than requiring the use of an oven.

Slime
It's vile and slimy and kids just love to get their hands on it. Ideal for lucky dips with a difference.

Yoghurt silly putty
This is a really simple recipe, which, though not terribly appetising, is entirely non-toxic. The texture of the putty is somewhere between slime and playdough. It’s marvellously tactile and very soothing for little fingers to play with.