5 Festive Food Activities For Kids

June 26, 2022

Celebrate our nation’s birthday with some fun food activities with the kiddos! Fireworks and sparklers are a must when the sun is down, but create some new traditions with the family by making some patriotic snacks. Mind you, these treats are suitable for all ages; they are an extra bit of fun for kids. With minimal effort, healthy ingredients, and Fourth of July fun, you are able to satisfy their hunger and keep them occupied. Relish in the holiday festivities with these 5 creative, tasty projects.

Instead of basic hot dogs, mix it up with a “twinkling look” and a few easy steps to make “4th of July Sparkler Dogs.” Skip the simple glass of juice; make a slushie or multi-colored beverage with a “Red, White, & Blue Layered Drink.” LIven up traditional chocolate-covered strawberries for some popping, patriotic “Red, White, and Blue Strawberries.” You can’t forget about the timeless pretzel rod snack project–add some stars and stripes with the “American Flag Pretzel” recipe! And finally, a different kind of breakfast treat with a swirl–”Patriotic Cinnamon Twists.”

Enjoy the day with all the different goodies!

 

5 Festive Food Activities for Kids

Red, White, and Blue Strawberries
Ingredients:

  • 12 large strawberries with stems
  • 4 ounces white chocolate, or white candy coating
  • 1/4 cup blue sprinkles (or PopRocks!)

 

Directions:

  1. Gather the ingredients.
  2. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Set aside.
  3. Pat the strawberries very dry with paper towels.
  4. Melt the white chocolate candy coating in a small microwave-safe bowl in short 30-second bursts, stirring after each heating until melted and smooth. Let cool slightly.
  5. Holding a strawberry by the stem, dip it about two-thirds into white chocolate. Since these are red, white, and blue strawberries, make sure you leave a visible red portion at the top of the berry.
  6. Place strawberry on the prepared baking sheet and repeat until all of the berries are dipped.
  7. Refrigerate the tray briefly to set the chocolate, about 5 minutes.
  8. Meanwhile, place the blue sprinkles or PopRocks in a small bowl.
  9. Dip the bottom third of a berry again in white chocolate, then immediately roll in blue sprinkles until the bottom third is covered in blue.
  10. You can skip the double-dipping and just roll it in sprinkles the first time you dip the berries in chocolate, but it's messier and more difficult to control.
  11. Repeat until all of the berries have a bottom layer of blue sprinkles.
  12. Refrigerate the tray until the white chocolate is completely set. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

 

 

4th of July Firecracker Dogs

Ingredients:

  • 1 can refrigerated breadstick dough
  • 2 packages -16 hot dogs
  • 16 thick slices colby cheese
  • 16 skewers

 

Directions:

  1. First take your skewers and stick them all the way through your hot dogs leaving about an inch and a half exposed out of the top of each hot dog. Then take a piece of breadstick dough and carefully wrap it around the hot dog until you get to the top. Place the wrapped dogs on a silpat (non-stick baking liner) or parchment paper and bake according to the package directions for the breadstick dough. It took us about 20 minutes at 350º.
  2. While the hot dogs are cooking, take out your cheese slices, the key to this step is to go to your grocers deli counter and ask for them to slice you pieces of cheese that are 1/4″-3/8″ thick. Then using a small star cookie cutter cut out your stars. Depending on how big or small your cookie cutter is will determine how many stars you get out of each slice of cheese. We could only get one star out of each slice.
  3. After your dogs have cooled for 2-3 minutes stick the star through the skewer at the top.
  4. We used a pail with a styrofoam ball hidden by crinkly papers to display them here, which would also be a great way to display them at a gathering. You can also just layer them on top of each other on a plate. Enjoy!

 

 

Red, White, & Blue Layered Drink

Ingredients:

  • Any juice or sports drink works well!
  • Suggestion:
    • Fruit Punch
    • Pina Colada flavored Sobe
    • Blue Gatorade

 

Directions:

  1. Start by pouring a small amount of the one that has the most sugar in it.
  2. Then add ice cubes.
  3. Slowly pour the next sugariest drink directly on top of the ice. If you pour too fast, you may accidentally mix the 2 liquids together.
  4. Add the one with the least amount of sugar at the very top.
  5. Alternatively, make it a slushy!
    1. Freeze the beverages.
    2. Blend the frozen beverage or break apart the ice.
    3. Layer the colors
  6. Enjoy!

 

 

American Flag Pretzels

Ingredients:

  • 3 bags of candy melts (red, white, and blue colors)
  • Large pretzel rods

 

Directions:

  1. Melt the white candy then dip the pretzels in ¾ of the way down.
  2. Let set up then dip the blue tips and shake white star sprinkles on.
  3. Put the melted red candy in a ziploc bag, cut the tip then make stripes.

 

 

Patriotic Cinnamon Twists

 

Ingredients:

FOR THE COLORFUL BREADSTICK DOUGH:

  • 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp instant yeast dry
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 ½ cups warm water
  • Food Coloring blue and red

CINNAMON FILLING:

  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

EASY GLAZE:

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract

PATRIOTIC GARNISH:

  • Star sprinkles

 

 

Directions:

  •  Breadstick Dough
    1. First, gather up and measure out all of the dough ingredients.
    2. Next, in a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt with a blending whisk and set aside.
    3. Then, in a large stand mixer bowl, pour in the yeast, sugar, and warm water. Beat the ingredients together on a high setting with the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook until completely mixed.
    4. Add the flour mixture into the yeast mixture ⅓ at a time, mixing well between each addition.
    5. The dough is ready when it pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a soft, smooth ball of dough.
    6. Then, split the dough evenly between 2 large bowls and cover your hands with disposable gloves because this next part gets messy!
    7. Add a few drops of food coloring into each of the bowls of dough, one red and the other blue. Use your hands to knead and fold the colors into the doughs. Set the colored doughs aside to rest for 10 minutes while you prepare the cinnamon filling.
    8. Then, after mixing the cinnamon filling, lightly flour a large, flat surface for the dough.
    9. If the dough is too sticky, roll it around on the lightly floured surface.
      1. Using the chop cutter to help scoop the dough around to pick up the flour makes this step a bit easier.
    10. Next, use the rolling pin to roll out one of the colored doughs until it is ¼ inch thick.
    11. Place a sheet of parchment paper over the dough and use the rolling pin to fold the dough around itself without letting any of the dough touch, otherwise it will stick together.
    12. Repeat the flouring and rolling process for the other colored dough. After rolling this dough out to ¼ inch, sprinkle the cinnamon filling over the entire dough.
    13. Then, carefully place the other layer of colored dough on top of the cinnamon-coated dough. Use a small knife or the chop cutter to cut the combined dough into 1-inch strips.
    14. Next, twist the dough strips and then transfer them to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
    15. Place the baking sheet of twists on top of the heating mat and cover with a second baking sheet on top. Let the cinnamon twists rise for 30 minutes.
    16. After rising, bake the patriotic colored twists at 375°F for 15 minutes.
    17. Finally, let the twists cool completely before drizzling with the glaze. When it’s time, make sure to coat the twists with the sprinkles before the glaze hardens.
  • Cinnamon Filling
    1. First, measure out the cinnamon filling ingredients.
    2. Then, in a medium mixing bowl, whisk the cinnamon and sugar together until completely combined.
  • Glaze
    1. First, measure out all of the easy glaze ingredients.
    2. Then, use a blending whisk to combine the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl until completely mixed.
    3. Finally, drizzle the easy glaze over the cooled cinnamon twists and immediately garnish with sprinkles while the glaze is wet. Serve and enjoy!