marmite et ponpon

Superhero cake tutorial – Happy birthday Nady!

Posted on December 20, 2015 | Leave a comment

My little hero, a huge fan of superheroes (i guess like all boys of his age) turned three couple of days ago. He definitely fancy a superhero cake, but since he was hesitant which character to choose, i decided to surprise him and merge 4 in 1 cake; spiderman, captain america, batman, and hulk.

I am an amateur baker and self tutor, learning how to work with fondant and dress up a cake like professionals. I put all my heart to decorate this cake to be up to my son’s expectations. I would love one day when he looks back at his old pictures to be proud of this mom. So far i succeeded to do it over three years for his 3 consecutive birthdays. I wish him million cakes of happiness and good health!

This superhero cake looks complicated to do but if you follow me step by step you will find it’s not that hard.

First you need to cover the cake with 4 colors of fondant in equal parts; green for hulk, yellow for batman, white for captain america and red for spiderman.
To start with spiderman, you need to draw the web with chocolate or icing. Start by vertical lines then do the horizontal ones, each one like a semi circle.
For the eyes all you need to do is trace them on the fondant and cut out. Click here for a high resolution file for the eyes. It’s a vector one you can adjust the size according to your cake.
Captain america is super easy, to do his shield, start with a red circle, than a smaller one white, then a smaller one red and a final smaller one blue. Put on top a white star and decorate around the shield with blue small stars.
Batman is the easiest i guess. All you need is tracing the logo on black fondant and cut it out. Click here to download a high resolution file to use it as a stencil. It’s a vector file to be able to adjust to the convenient size of your cake.
Finally hulk, the part that needs the most work. First cut small irregular shapes to look like a wall when put together.
To do the hand, you need to make 4 green cylinders (fingers) and put them on a rectangular shape. Here you need to look at your real fist to try modeling the fondant the nearest possible to real one.
try when bending the cylinder shapes to do fingers, create the knots, nails and do small lines to look like flesh, these details will make it look real. If you don’t have the real tools for modeling you can use a knife.

Et voila the homemade superhero cake! Always add your personal touch, it adds more love and gives the occasion the warmth needed. happy birthday super Nady!

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

Divine Christmas chocolate cookie

Posted on December 17, 2015 | 6 comments

Baking holiday desserts is the most enjoyable thing to do; if you’re not in the festivities mood yet, the smell filling the house when baking these chocolate sugar cookies will do the job!

These melt in your mouth cookies will be the hit for this year and a staple for the coming years. You can consider it as a homemade gift to family and friends.

This recipe makes a pretty large batch, about 4 1/2 dozens to enjoy (of course it could be plus or minus depending on the cutters size). The most important is to use a good quality of cocoa because it’s all about the chocolate taste.

The recipe calls for:

400g butter unsalted and softened
2 cups sugar
4 1/2 cup all purpose flour sifted
1 1/2 cup cocoa powder sifted
2 large eggs
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed. Add eggs slowly and mix. Make sure to scrape down the bowl with your spatula and mix again. Add vanilla extract and stir briefly.

Sift your dry ingredients together. (Flour, cocoa powder and salt) then add them to the mixture. Mix on low speed, when it clumps around the paddle attachment it’s ready. It’s also important at this stage not to over mix the dough. Place in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. Roll out the dough and cut out cookie shapes.

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the center of the cookie no longer looks wet. Again the baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.

When baking cookies, I usually line the baking tray with parchment paper, it helps cookies to bake evenly and it’s easy to slide the cookies off of the baking sheet without breaking them. Let cookies cool to room temperature then serve.

This is my first batch, lets see how many more i will be doing before Christmas is here. Happy baking!

You can also check last year’s scrumptious Christmas shortbread cookies.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

6 Comments

Posted in dessert, special occasions

Tagged chocolate, christmas cookies, food blog, food blogger, homemade, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, recipe, sugar cookies

The best homemade mushroom soup

Posted on December 15, 2015 | 2 comments

I heart soups, especially the homemade ones, where you can indulge in a flavorful one without feeling any guilt. This soup is so rich in flavors and low in calories. It is super easy to make plus it takes less than 30 minutes to be ready.

500g mushroom sliced
1 medium onion finely diced
50g butter
2 tbsp flour
4 1/2 cup vegetable broth (less fat, less salt)
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a casserole and cook the onions until fragrant and tender, about 2-3 minutes. Add the mushroom and cook about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over while still cooking for another 2 minutes. Pour the broth and mix. When u see the first bubble forming, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Puree in a blender and serve. You can keep aside some mushroom slices if you like chunks in your soup.

If you wish to have a creamier version of this soup, you can add one cup of heavy cream 2 minutes before turning off the heat. You can still enjoy a low calorie soup if you choose low fat cream. Personally i prefer it without cream, i like to enjoy the exclusive taste of mushroom.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

2 Comments

Posted in appetizers & salads

Tagged food, food blogger, homemade, jaymmy, lebanon, low calorie, low fat, marmite et ponpon, mushroom soup, qatar, recipe, soup

Christmas candle holder -DIY- crafts for tiny hands

Posted on December 10, 2015 | Leave a comment

Christmas decoration fiesta is still going on. My little Lutin is so excited and counting down to the big day D. Meantime we are enjoying crafting some decorations to add our personal touch in every corner in the house.

I really loved working with the baking soda dough that we explored this year. Last week we did the keepsake ornaments and the result was amazing, so we decided to use it again for candle holders. For a reminder to the dough recipe, click here.

Cut out star shapes and while the dough is still soft, mark the place of the tea candle before baking. When it’s totally dry and cool, hand it to your little helper and watch the lovely golden fingers coloring them. Red, green and golden are the dominant colors in our house for this season.

I am amazed how dedicated Nady is. I love Christmas more and more because of his excitement, to the extent i feel like a kid again and i believe in Santa 🙂

After the paint is perfectly dry, place the tea candles. We used vanilla scented ones because we are planning to light them the Christmas eve at the dinner.

Like i always say, personalized things are the most meaningful. I am sure these candle holders will remain for many coming christmases.

If you are doing this with your little girls, add glitter on the paint they will love it. Little details make the difference. Always give options to your kids to develop their creativity.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

Christmas delights: dark chocolate whiskey truffles

Posted on December 8, 2015 | Leave a comment

Christmas comes once a year with lots of yummy treats, it’s the season of 10452 calories. Who cares?! Forget about counting calories and indulge in these heavenly treasures, i promise you they are addictive!

Treat yourself with these exquisite dark chocolate truffles with a hint of whiskey. cv, fTreat yourself this Christmas with these exquisite dark chocolate truffles with a hint of whiskey. hggYou will need:

500g dark chocolate (cut in small pieces)
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup whiskey
dash of salt
unsweetened cocoa powder for rolling

Combine chocolate, cream and butter in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in 20 seconds intervals, stirring between each.When the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth and glossy stir in the whiskey and salt and combine. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before shaping the truffle into your desired size of balls. Roll them on a bed of cocoa powder and store them in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Better served chilled. Store them in the refrigerator up to one week, but i bet it won’t last for one day. You can also roll them on chocolate sprinkles or take it to the next level by rolling them on red or green vermicelli to have Christmas colors.

It could be a nice gift for christmas, wrap them in a nice box and share this pleasure with your loved ones. Homemade gifts are the best!

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.