Make some  deliciously scented birthday cake cloud dough for sensory play fun with preschoolers!

We are huge fans of sensory play, with our best ever no-cook play dough recipe being our number one most popular article on the blog! Fabulous as play dough is, a close runner up in second place is cloud dough! Such a wonderfully simple play material to make, using just 2 ingredients, it keeps for months and inspires hours of play!

We have made many versions of cloud dough over the years, including naturally scented lavender cloud dough which smelled amazing!

A few weeks ago my littlest one had his 2nd birthday party (already, waaa!) and instead of games we set out a room full of sensory play tubs and tables for the toddler guests to explore. For this party we made up a batch of birthday cake cloud dough, complete with birthday themed additions and vanilla essence scent for that lovely, birthday cake smell!

How to make birthday cake cloud dough:

6 -8 cups plain flour (depending on how much you want to make!)

1-2 cups vegetable oil (or baby oil if you’re sure the kids won’t put any in their mouths)

4-5 drops vanilla extract

confetti sprinkles (optional!)

Tip the flour into a wide, shallow tray or tub. Add the oil and stir it through, then use your fingers to mix it thoroughly until it has combined to form the consistency of damp sand. If it’s not quite right then add a few more drops of oil until it feels moldable yet dry. Add the drops of vanilla extract and mix through evenly.

Sprinkle over the confetti sprinkles to add colour and fun!

We then added some silicone cupcake moulds, birthday cake candles, measuring spoons, candles and sliver string beads to enhance the play and give lots of opportunities for counting, recognising numerals and number play.

The little ones enjoyed squeezing the dough into mounds and smashing it down, sprinkling it all around the tray! My bigger girls loved it too and still really enjoy all sensory play invitations at ages 8, nearly 7 and nearly 5. They made pretend play birthday cakes, added sprinkles and beads to decorate them, counted individual candles and matched them to the numeral candles.

Cloud dough keeps really well if stored in an air tight container and makes a lovely sensory play gift for preschoolers too! Just don’t get it wet or it will start to smell and must be thrown out.

See our extensive collection of SENSORY PLAY IDEAS in the archives.

Browse our many PLAY RECIPES here too.