I mentioned that my 5 year old has fallen for the wonderful stories of Roald Dahl. Although we were reading James and the Giant Peach (which I was really enjoying) he decided we had to stop and read The Twits instead. So, we’ve been reading a couple of chapters each evening and taking a lot of pleasure in it, so much that it inspired a fun baking session.

Yes, we baked a beard in honour of Mr Twit, decorated it – then ate it! We had so much fun we thought we’d share our Twits-inspired activity.

Make an edible Mr Twits gingerbeard biscuit

Mr Twit is famous for his horrible beard, which he never washes and is filled with bits of old food. To make our own version we first drew a good beard shape then used it as a template to cut out an amazing gingerbread beard (I used my never-fail gingerbread recipe here).

After it had been baked and turned a delicious golden brown colour we left them to cool down. I piped around the edge with white icing. I’m not quite sure why I did that but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Then we set up each gingerbeard biscuit on a tray along with an assortment of icing pens, strawberry laces, sprinkles and sweets. The idea was to re-create Mr Twits disgusting beard with our own gingerbread and sweetie version.

The children had fun cramming as many things on to their gingerbeards as possible. The room was very quiet as they concentrated on their biscuits. At one point the gingerbeards looked ok, but they were quickly covered in a colourful, sticky mess! Delicious!

Of course when they had run out of the sweets and icing it was time for the gingerbeard test. Could they hold their beards up for a photo without everything falling off?

Luckily both gingerbeards passed the test and there was a quick photo before they were able to eat their creations. I hope you’ll agree this is a fun way to celebrate Roald Dahl Day this Sunday 13th September!

This year, for the first time, Puffin Books are publishing an edition of the book with a real, hairy beard on the cover (there’s also been a version with Scratch ‘n’ Sniff stickers and even an app, Roald Dahl’s TWIT OR MISS!)

You may also be interested in our other Roald Dahl posts:

 15 crafts for celebrating Roald Dahl Day

George’s Marvellous Medicine mud kitchen activity

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-inspired chocolate play dough