In These Stilettos

I’m always a little envious of all the pumpkin festivities that happen over in the Northern hemisphere during the autumn months. How I would love to take the kids pumpkin picking on a farm somewhere. Alas, we will have to settle in creating our own fun and cheer, and I thought what better way than to make up a batch of “Pumpkin Play Dough”.

For this I used my all time, go to, no cook, play dough recipe.

It’s literally ready in 5 minutes and I’ve even mixed up a batch for the boys before running to work in the morning. You’ll need 4 ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• Between 1 and 2 cups warm water (you keep adding until it feels right)
• food colouring (optional)

There are several variations on this I’ve seen but this one works for us, every time. If stored correctly, it will literally keep for about 4 to 5 months. The container must be airtight otherwise your play dough will start to dry and form a crust. At the end once you have combined everything, I add a tiny bit of oil to my hands to rub on the outside of the playdough, not more than a teaspoon.

I usually do the initial mixing here while the water is still a bit warm, and then I hand the bowl over to the kids and let them get stuck in there. Add the food colouring into the water before you start to mix as well to ensure an even colour.

All I did for the pumpkin playdough was add in a little cinnamon for smell, its heavenly. You could also create an invitation to play by giving your kids cinnamon sticks, cloves or star anise to play with.

And thats it! Easy right? Now we can create our own mini pumpkin patch.