Chocolate Play Dough Surprise Eggs

If your little one is anything like mine, he or she probably loves chocolate surprise eggs! You know the ones—chocolate on the outside with a little plastic toy  hidden inside? Ya, those. My daughter adores them, but since I’m not a huge fan of the quality of chocolate or the amount of play the toys tend to get before being forgotten about, I decided I’d try to make my own this Easter. Since I wanted the eggs to be more play-focused, I went to my go-to play material and created chocolate play dough surprise eggs—sort of like a mini sensory play kit enclosed in a colourful egg!

To start with, I whipped up a batch of our favourite super soft chocolate play dough.  Here’s the recipe:

• 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 teaspoon glycerine

Once you have everything out, all you have to do is whisk the dry ingredients together before adding the wet ingredients in and giving the mixture a good, vigorous stir. At this point, the dough will seem much too sticky, but resist the urge to add flour just yet! Let it cool for a bit, then knead it really well. You should find that the stickiness disappears as it cools and you’ll be left with a super soft and lovely dough. 

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Now, one thing to note: I adore this play dough and it truly smells divine, but it should be noted that as with most traditional play doughs, this one is not intended to be eaten. If you think the chocolate scent might be confusing to your little one, basic play dough dyed brown will work too.

Besides the play dough, you’ll need several plastic eggs (my dough filled six perfectly) and some fun surprises to hide inside. I went with sushi grass and mini creatures so that the dough could act as dirt or mud and my daughter could create little spring scenes, but what you hide inside is up to you!

To put the eggs together, I divided my dough into six parts and then pressed each chunk down into a flat oval shape. I then placed my surprises on top and rolled the dough up and around them, enclosing them fully.

Afterwards, I gently formed the dough into an egg shape, making sure to keep the surprises hidden.

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The final step was simply placing the dough eggs into the plastic egg cases. This step took a little bit of re-shaping here and there, but that was no big deal.

And that was that. My chocolate play dough surprise eggs are currently tucked away in a sealed plastic bag just waiting for April to arrive and I think my little lady is going to love them!