Making Hot Cross Buns in Preschool

One of the most fun activities we’ve ever done is making hot cross buns in preschool. This activity was part of our nursery rhymes themes from Experience Curriculum. I’d say it was everyone’s favorite rhyme because not only did we get to “cook”, we got to eat a treat! What a memorable way to learn.

Making Hot Cross Buns in Preschool

I’m ambitious, but not so ambitious to make hot cross buns from scratch. It’s just not feasible with two infants in care plus 5 others. What’s most important when working with kids in the kitchen is that everyone gets some hands on experience and get to eat what they make.

I used this recipe from McCormick. It’s super simple and so yummy! To simplify the process, I measured out the cinnamon and brown sugar into little cups. The kids stirred it together and then spread it on their flattened biscuit.

They added raisins and then rolled up the dough into a ball. I recommend marking the pan and making a diagram of whose bun is whose. That way you don’t have to be so concerned about germs and everyone can eat the one they made.

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes. While you’re waiting for the buns to bake, make icing.

I put the icing into little snack size bags for the kids to squeeze their own icing on their bun.

Yum!

If you don’t like raisins you can leave them out. All of my kids were happy to have raisins.

This recipe was super simple and yet so good for my preschoolers.

Hot Cross Buns Icing Art

Making pretend hot cross buns with icing is fun too! We just used brown circles for buns glued to a paper plate. All the materials were provided by Experience Curriculum.

Draw on raisins if you want.

Then mix together shaving cream and some glue to make pretend icing. Put it in a plastic bag, cut the tip and squeeze! Icing the hot cross buns was so fun!

We used a lot of pretend icing but that was the idea of this project, to squeeze on icing. It’s a great activity for little hands and they don’t want to quit!

The glue and shaving cream icing dries puffy and then eventually quite flat as the air dries out of it.

Our awesome hot cross buns and icing activity.

More Nursery Rhyme Activities

• What’s in the Box? Nursery Rhymes
• Nursery Rhyme Shared Reading
• Pat A Cake Nursery Rhyme Activities
• Itsy Bitsy Spider
• Sing a Song of Sixpence
• This Little Piggy
• Humpty Dumpty Preschool Activities