Sizzle up some petite delights on a homemade tiny cooker. What miniature treats will you cook up?
Before you start
- An empty drinks can per person
- Washing up sponges (at least one per pair)
- Washing up liquid
- Hot water
- Washing up bowls (one per pair or 3)
- Tea towels
- Scissors (per pair at least)
- One tea light candle per participant
- Matches or a lighter
- Some kind of heat proof base (e.g cooking trays or tiles)
- Cooking oil
- Cocktail sticks
- Food to cook. Anything you can cut up small enough, but ideally something you can eat raw in case (e.g vegetables, tofu or halloumi)
What to do
Give out the materials and talk through the following steps with participants, demonstrating with a can yourself as you go:
Take your fizzy drinks can and give the base a really good scrub. You will want to remove the date stamp that is sometimes there as this will be your cooking surface. Dry the can with a tea towel.
Cut the can in half length ways. Throw away the end which has the ring pull. Then turn the other half upside down on the table so that the underside of the can is facing up. There should be a small bowl-shaped area on the underside. This is where you’ll cook your food, with a candle underneath to heat it.
Cut two slits upwards from the side of the can approximately 2cm apart and 3cm long. This will create a small flap which allows some air to get to the candle, preventing it from losing oxygen and going out.
Light the tea-light and place it under the can. Make sure the whole thing is on a heat proof base.
Add a tiny amount of oil to the bottom of the cooking part and then add food.
Turn hot food and remove it from the ‘pan’ with cocktail sticks to avoid burns.
Enjoy eating your snacks!
CAUTION: make sure you have enough adults to supervise this activity safely, especially in the part where you are heating the food and especially with young children. Have a first aid kit handy with things to treat burns in case
