Miniature food made with salt dough

Pretty good spread huh?

Shame it's too tiny to be eaten.

That's right; I made some miniature food for my dolls house. Here's how;

Salt dough.

You'll need plain flour, salt and water.

I just got roughly the same amount of flour and salt and added water until it went doughy, but if you want to do things properly then just google a salt dough recipe.

To make everything in that top photo I only used the amount of salt dough you see in my hand there.

I cooked my salt dough on the lowest oven setting - less than Gas Mark 1 - and the smaller pieces only needed about 15 minutes, the larger ones I left in for 30 minutes. You'll be able to tell when they're done as they should go white and hard and not be squishy in the middle. 

To make a batch of hot cross buns roll some salt dough into a ball then flatten it into a rectangle with rounded edges. Mark out six sections and add thin strips of salt dough for the crosses. Dab a bit of water on to make them stick. Then cut out the individual buns.

Once they've been in the oven paint the buns. The crosses and bases will already be the right colour but add some orangey brown to the tops. I also painted on a little varnish to look like the glaze.

Note; the salt dough expands slightly in the oven so flat edges don't come out so flat. To fix this just use some sand paper to file them flat again. This is something I had to do with the bottoms of the hot cross buns.

To make a croissant thinly roll some salt dough into a long triangle. Then roll it up, starting at the wide end, and curve into the right shape. 

Once cooked, paint with a golden brown colour, a little darker on top.

To make donuts roll some salt dough into a ball and then flatten it. Use a kebab skewer or a thin drinking straw to make a hole through the middle.

After they've been in the oven, paint them golden brown and then different colours for the icing.

I also made scones, shortbread fingers, cupcakes, cookies, plaited bread, turnovers and Belgian buns. The possibilities are endless, just have a play around with the dough.

Here are two ladies enjoying a cream tea and a gossip.

Hungry kids waiting for the cake to be cut.

And a family having their continental breakfast of croissants.

I'd love to see what you come up with.