How to Make Caterpillars Out of Food

Make food more fun by creating edible caterpillars out of dough or baked cookies. Kids will enjoy helping to make and eat their own artistic caterpillar creation. Keep the needed materials for making caterpillars from food on hand for a rainy day project or as a creative snack alternative. To add educational value to the treats, tie making the caterpillars with a lesson about real caterpillars.

Things You'll Need

  • Cookie or bread dough
  • Egg whites, beaten
  • Pastry brush
  • Baking sheet
  • 2 thin pretzel sticks
  • 2 raisins
  • Buttercream icing
  • Spreader or butter knife
  • 13 wafer cookies
Show More

Instructions

  1. Dough Caterpillar

    • 1

      Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for cookie dough or 425 degrees Fahrenheit for bread dough.

    • 2

      Pinch bits of dough off and roll them between your hands to produce 1-inch balls. Add or remove dough from the ball as you roll it to create the 1-inch diameter sphere. Repeat with the remaining dough.

    • 3

      Press the dough balls with the palm of your hand to flatten them into discs.

    • 4

      Place one dough disc on one end of the cookie sheet and apply beaten egg white to a third of the disc with a pastry brush. Lay a second disc on top of the first where you brushed the egg white. The egg white is the glue to attach the segments of the caterpillar's body together. Repeat slightly overlapping the discs as you move across the cookie sheet to create a long, slightly curving caterpillar shape.

    • 5

      Insert two thin pretzel sticks into the top of the last dough disc for antennae.

    • 6

      Press two raisins into the top dough disc just below the pretzels for the caterpillar's eyes.

    • 7

      Bake the caterpillar for five to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

    Cookie Caterpillar

    • 8

      Spread a thick layer of buttercream icing with a spreader on one side of 12 wafer cookies.

    • 9

      Press the iced side of a cookie against the bare side of another cookie to stack the cookies. Repeat until all the cookies are connected in a long row.

    • 10

      Attach the remaining cookie to the last iced cookie for the head of the caterpillar. Lay the caterpillar cookie stack on its side.

    • 11

      Dip the bottom of each of two thin pretzel sticks into the icing and attach to the front cookie to make the antennae.

    • 12

      Dab two raisins with icing and press them onto the head cookie for the eyes of the caterpillar.