Most of the time I try to make sure all messiness takes place outside the house, preferably at a baby class where someone else will clear up the mess!! But we have tried messy play in the bath tub. With this, the clean up afterwards proved interesting, as I attempted to juggle a baby now coated in baked bean sauce, while I emptying the bath tub of mess, only to fill it up again with water and hose the baby

I didn’t quite think that one through.

Here we are at Hearty Hands in Langton Green, Kent enjoying some seriously messy play.

I had been meaning to try out a recipe for edible playdough, as it sounded messy enough to be fun, but not messy enough to require forward planning. I also wanted to try making something with cornflour, because… well, who doesn’t want to play with cornflour.

I knew the recipe had to be edible though, as the

So for anyone else looking for a totally gluten free, complete edible play dough, here’s the recipe I used.
Edible, gluten free, play dough
150g – Baby rice 
3 tbsp – Vegetable Oil
150g – Cornflour 
120ml – Unsweetened Applesauce (or water if you don’t have apple sauce)
A few drops – Food colouring 

I had loads of HiPP baby rice left over from when we first attempted weaning with the Firebug, so I

The food colouring I had didn’t work very well, as you will see from the later images. I recommend using something fluorescent and high in E numbers, rather than my natural version which just didn’t have the desired impact.
Let’s get started.
1. Measure out your ingredients.

2. Mix your baby rice and cornflour together in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add your apple sauce, vegetable oil and food colouring. And keep mixing.

4. Mix well, and knead by hand.

5. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth and

6. If you find the dough is still sticky, add some more baby rice taking care to knead it all in before you decide if you need to add any more. If your dough is too dry, add a little water.

Your dough will keep for several days in the fridge if you keep it in a sealed container or wrap it up with cling film.

When you take it out of the fridge for the first time, you might find it’s a little hard, but this should change once you play with it and warm it up a little. If not, add a touch more water.

So this is our finished

We had fun though, and it turned out not to be quite so messy after all.