Sinterklaas Is Coming!

“Hij komt, hij komt, die lieve goede sint!” (Good saint Nicholas is coming!)

 

Sinterklaas is a time of Dutch “gezelligheid”, pepernoten, anticipation, presents, singing Sinterklaas songs, family, warmth, and –quite frankly- abundance. In every way. So don’t be surprised when we tell you this isn’t exactly a sugar-free holiday!

Today we’re sharing a fun idea to make with your children during Sinterklaas time. This is actually a tradition in one of our colleague’s family, and has been for 22 years (and counting!).

Requirements:

Icing: powdered sugar, water.
Speculaaspop: speculaas doll, decorations like Dr. Oetker Ocean Mix or Unicorn Mix, Smarties, vruchtenhagel, hagelslag, other.

It’s super easy to make, and your children will LOVE it!

Unwrap the speculaas dolls to make sure they aren’t broken. We recommend using FLAT plates or placemats to put underneath. Otherwise putting pressure on the dolls when applying the icing and decorations may cause them to break. (We’ve learned this the hard way, unfortunately.)
Things will get sticky. We recommend putting the various decorations into cups or bowls, each equipped with a tea spoon. It looks super fun and “gezellig”, and works well.

Making the icing:

How much you need depends on how many dolls you’re planning to decorate. To make at least four, pour 1 tablespoon of water into a cup or small bowl. Now add a LOT of powdered sugar and stir with a tea spoon to prevent lumps. The icing needs to be liquid enough to spread onto the dolls, but not too runny.

Call all kids to the table, provide them with their own speculaas doll, and enjoy!
First let them spread the icing onto their dolls, after that they can decorate them with all things provided and make their own master pieces.

(It gets even more festive with cups of hot cocoa and whipped cream and  Youtube playing traditional Sinterklaas songs!)

If you feel a whole speculaas doll full of icing and sugary decorations is a bit too much, or your children are still very young, you can also use regular speculaas biscuits to substitute the larger dolls.

We wish you a lot of fun making these!
Team Yummy Dutch.

Tags: sinterklaas, saint nicholas, piet, zwarte piet, bakken, baking, speculaas, speculoos, kids, kinderen, food, eten, lekker, pepernoten, kruidnoten, hagelslag