What it is: A turn-taking game of caution and skill…kind of like a homemade version of Jenga, with a messier outcome
Best for: A small group of players (3 to 6), big kids to adults
What you need:
- All-purpose baking flour
- A cup
- A penny
- A pie tin, cookie sheet, or baking dish
- A butter knife
How to play: To set up the game, pack the cup tightly with flour. Then carefully turn the cup over in the pie tin and gently pull it back, leaving a cup-shaped stack of flour in the middle of the pie tin. Then very carefully place the penny on top of the stack, right in the middle, like this:
To play, players take turns slicing a chunk of flour away with the butter knife while everyone watches. If a player tries to slice away a chunk that’s too thin, the rest of the players can vote to make the player go again.
Eventually the penny will fall. The last player who touched the flour stack before the penny falls loses and, as punishment, has to dig the penny out of the flour using only their teeth. They’ll inevitably end up with a white powdery face, so you might want some paper towels (and a camera) handy. If you want to play again, set up a new stack with new flour and go for it!
I’ve played this game as part of a trivia game, too. Players had to answer questions, and if someone answered a question incorrectly they had to cut away a slice of flour. If you answered the question correctly, you didn’t have to cut away the flour and so didn’t have to risk getting flour all over your face/in your mouth.
If you don’t like the idea of putting a piece of money in your mouth, you can play with a piece of candy like a Sweet Tart or a jelly bean. The money is just more difficult, resulting in more laughs (except for the poor person with their face in the flour).
Speaking of the poor person with their face in the flour, someone inevitably will try shoving their head from behind as they bend over the flour pile, pushing their face into the flour, making an even bigger mess, and possibly losing the penny even more. If you want your players to play nice, make sure you set up your rules (like no touching the flour-digging player) at the beginning.