Guest Post: DIY Puff Paint 'Icing' for Creative Culinary Kids

Do you remember how much fun it was making 'potions' when you were a kid?

I wasn't a huge fan of mud pies because I detested getting my fingers dirty (with three brothers who were veritable Petri dishes, it totally makes sense in hindsight!) but if I could find a bottle of shampoo or liquid soap (my 'wet' ingredients) and some baby powder (the 'dry') plus a heaping tablespoon of craft glitter for sparkle and a splash of my mother's perfume for fragrance, I was in business.


I cringe now about how expensive my little experiments must have been (thanks for being so understanding, Mom!) but the desire to create something from nothing is not at all uncommon and if you're anything like me, you transferred that into an adult obsession in the kitchen and make edible concoctions on a daily basis. And it all started when you were a child.

Fortunately, you can foster your own child's desire to whip up something colorful, keep the costs to a minimum and help them develop culinary skills, all while spending quality time with them in the kitchen as you make DIY puff paint 'icing' from scratch.

DIY Puff Paint 'Icing' Recipe

You'll need:
½ Cup Flour 
2 tsp. Salt 
2 tsp. Baking Powder 
1 tsp. Baking Soda 
1/3 Cup Water (as needed)


1. Measure out the dry ingredients into a large container (I used a 2-cup capacity measuring cup) with a spout.

2. Before mixing the wet and the dry, set up the rest of your 'paint station.'

Here's a little trick I use whenever I'm baking with my nephews since their little hands aren't quite ready to handle a piping bag – place a quart-sized ziplock bag in a juice glass with the sides pulled over the edge (like a garbage bag hooked over the sides). From here, all you need to do is pour the puff paint icing into the bag.


3. Mix in the water to the dry ingredients until you reach the desired consistency. Start with less because you can always add more!

I made mine lavender because a) purple's my fave; and b) I combine colors whenever I can to create my own custom shades – this took 4 drops of blue food coloring and 4 drops of red.

4. Pour the puff paint icing into the bag, pull it out of the glass and work all of the paint into a single corner. From here, zip it almost all the way closed and slowly squeeze out the air. Once all of the paint is in a bottom corner, twist the bag at the top (to keep the icing in while you squeeze) and snip a tiny edge off of the corner.

5. Now the fun part – the painting! I've used a sheet of freezer paper which is a perfect surface for little pipers to practice their script or shapes or spelling, whatever!

*Bonus Tip: You can laminate stencils for more advanced piping practice. This way, your kids can develop muscle memory as they work with the paint icing on a clear, laminated template before scraping it off and starting over as many times as they want.

6. Once your master baker in training has completed his or her masterpiece, pop the sheet of freezer paper into the microwave for about 10-15 seconds for the puff paint to set.

Here are a few takeaways and related tips for the lessons we learned today:

*Perseverance & Patience: Much like life on the whole, it's all about tweaking the recipe until you get it right. Add more water until your paint is the consistency you want. And if it's too runny, add more flour.


*Creativity & Resourcefulness: One of the reasons I love cake decorating so much is the excuse to create fluffy batches of icing in every color of the rainbow. Encourage color experimentation and teach your little decorators about using what you have on hand to make what you need.

Don't have orange food coloring? No problem – mix yellow and red. Added too much blue and need to lighten up the batch? Just keep working in white until you have the perfect shade of sky!

And want to make a birthday cake and you just used your last piping bag? It's all good – grab a gallon-sized plastic bag and cut off a corner tip. Voila – makeshift piping bag!

So give this a shot and let me know how it goes! What other cool DIY projects have you done with your kids that involve the magic of mixing ingredients and making a custom creation in the kitchen?


Rheney Williams developed a knack for decorating things early in life and honed her skills through an education in pastry arts and stagecraft. In addition to writing about projects for The Home Depot, Rheney can be found decorating everything from cookies and cakes with icing to DIY refinished furniture with paint.