Tag Archives: chocolate

Apple carrot cake

Posted on January 13, 2016 | Leave a comment

Sometimes all you need is a simple and easy cake recipe for everyday. Breakfast or dessert, this is the wholesome cake to adapt. It has fruits (apple and carrots), nuts (walnut), eggs and milk.

It’s a complete meal or snack, made it healthier by replacing the butter with vegetable oil and using low fat milk.

So much flavors in a simple cake to enjoy and indulge.

You will need: (9″ baking dish)

5 eggs
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
zest of one lemon (approx 1 tbsp)
zest of one orange (approx 1 1/2 tbsp)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 large carrot grated
1 medium apple grated
1/2 cup milk (low fat)
1 cup dark chocolate chip
a handful walnut

Preheat oven on 180°C. Butter a 9″ dish and dust with flour then put it aside.

Start by mixing eggs, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on high speed until light in color and fluffy. Mix in the lemon and orange zest and the oil and keep mixing for another 5 minutes on low speed.

Fold in the flour, baking powder, grated carrot, grated apple and milk. Mix gently until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Pour in the baking dish and bake for an hour or until a skewer comes out clean.

If you wish to wrap the cake with chocolate, sprinkle 1 cup dark chocolate chip on top when the cake is done and still hot then garnish with a handful walnut. If you don’t want to add chocolate, chop the walnuts and add them to the batter before baking.

It’s so fluffy and rich, beware that one piece could drag another. In other words it’s addictive.

This cake is so versatile, you can add cinnamon if you’re fond of, and if you wish to enjoy a deep flavor, you can add a pinch of nutmeg and clove.

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

“Mini chef in the kitchen” 4 – delicious brownies with M&M

Posted on May 5, 2015 | Leave a comment

This simple and quick recipe is packed with chocolate flavor just as your kid loves it! It’s a basic recipe every mom should share with her mini chefs!

You will need:

1 1/3 cup flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
M&M for sprinkling on top

Mix all dry ingredients; flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Let your mini chef sift the cocoa powder.

In a separate bowl mix eggs, vanilla and oil then add them to the dry ingredients.

My son loves mixing! It is the best part for him, but don’t over mix, just the time to let all ingredients combined.

You can’t imagine how beneficial this exercise is, especially on the cognitive and motor skills. Click benefits of cooking with your kids to learn more about it.

Back to our delicious brownies, pour the batter in a greased baking dish (8×12”) and sprinkle the top with M&Ms.

Preheat oven (200°C) and bake for 20-25 mins or until skewer comes out clean.

You can add more M&Ms after baking, some might drown in! My mini chef suggestion!. Wait until is set to room temperature and cut. Get ready, by this time you will be asked thousand of times if it’s ready to be cut!

As i always say, the best part is when your kids taste the reward of their efforts. Now it’s time to pack some for the teacher in the nursery, friends and uncle to taste Nady’s chef d’oeuvre. He loves to share being proud of what he did!

I can assume it’s one of the best brownies i tasted. Crispy edges with chewy inside. Can’t get enough of it. It’s going to be the brownies recipe from now on!

Try it also with ice cream or chocolate sauce! Enjoy your time with your kids and have loads of educational fun !

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.

Reasons to cook with your kids – “Mini chef in the kitchen” 1- Nutella mini tarts recipe

Posted on April 29, 2015 | 4 comments

How many times you let your kids out of the kitchen, having no time to let them be involved, or just being tired and drained out of energy, or simply not in the mood. However i am sure there were many other times you really enjoyed cooking or baking together with so much fun.

No doubt, cooking with kids takes more time and effort, but for the many learning experiences you can embrace while your kids are in the kitchen, i encourage you to do it more often. Trust me the benefits to their development justify the extra efforts.

Reasons to cook with your kids:

Literacy (building vocabulary): cooking with kids gives you the opportunity to introduce new words. You will be talking about the ingredients which gives them food knowledge. They will be observing and talking about the process as well (like creaming, whisking,…). It’s good to mention the new words several times and put them in a sentence they will understand and repeat after you. And when you read for them the recipe (if they can’t read yet) they will learn also that there is a method and instructions to follow. When am with with my son i enjoy mostly the open conversation we have all the time of cooking.

Brain development by exploring their senses: sensory experience is essential for the brain development. Cooking engage all the senses of your kids; seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting (especially smelling and tasting). My son is the curious type he likes to taste everything!

Motor skills: Developing fine and gross motor skills is as important as the sensory experience. They will be training their tiny muscles (fingers, hands, arms and even all body) by stirring, whisking, beating, kneading….. I love watching my son doing all this, i see a small proud man using his beautiful hands magically 🙂

Math and logic: By counting and using the measuring cups or spoons to follow the accurate recipe.

Self esteem: you will experience the look of confidence and pride on your kid’s face when he sees the outcome and especially when he offers it to others. When i bake with my son, he keeps on telling what he did to everyone he sees, and insists on offering some of “his creations” saying : “Nady did this!” waiting for the rewards for his efforts.

All these benefits go without neglecting the amount of fun we have and the quality time together which is sacred for me.

The most important thing though is you don’t force the learning to happen, it should flow naturally. The golden rule is to enjoy the time with your kids in the kitchen.

If you like to cook with your kids but you are struggling to find simple recipes to do, follow me this week. I will be writing a series of posts with easy recipes to enjoy cooking with your mini chefs!

Today we baked mini Nutella tarts. You will need:

250g flour (sifted)
125g cold butter diced
3-4 tbsp water
nutella chocolate

Let your kid sieve the flour into a mixing bowl and add the butter cubes.

Rub the flour and butter to become like sand. Add the water one tbsp after the other and watch your genius kneading.

We placed the dough for 15 mins in the fridge before working it. Meanwhile we cleaned the mess around us.

Sprinkle little flour on your working surface and roll out the dough.

and cut circles to fit in the muffin tray.

Nady cut also hearts and stars to decorate the top of each tart.

Put almost one tbsp of the chocolate into the middle of each tart.

Let your kid choose any shape to decorate the top of the tart.

Preheat oven to 200°C and bake for 15 mns or until top is golden brown.

Meanwhile arrange again the mess you did, teaching your kids to be clean and tidy, which is an important and fun part of cooking as well.

Let it cool before your little chef taste the reward of his efforts.

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.

4 Comments

Posted in dessert, kids food, way to play

Tagged beirut, benefits of cooking with kids, blog, Brain development, chocolate, cooking, cooking with kids, easy recipe, food blogger, jaymmy, kids food, little chefs, marmite et ponpon, nutella, qatar, sensory experience, simple recipes, tart

Decadent chocolate cake

Posted on March 4, 2015 | 5 comments

If you think i am exaggerating when i say this is the best basic recipe for a chocolate cake, try it and prove me wrong! I am sure you will be checking this recipe over and over and over….

If you remember my spectacular chocolate cake with red fruits i did a year go, you will find that this is the same recipe of the chocolate cake, but this one with nutella butter frosting.

Trust me with or without frosting, ganache or fruits, it’s a staple chocolate cake for all the occasions and times.

To bake the cake you need:

2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup, unsweetened cocoa powder
11/2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 tbsps instant coffee powder
1 cup hot water
2 large eggs

Preheat oven on 180ºC. In a large bowl, sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the sugar and mix well with the dry ingredients.

Make a well in the center and add the milk, oil, vanilla essence and eggs then mix. Finally add the hot coffee melted in the cup of hot water.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 40 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Start checking from 35 mins onwards.

I should mention that my little baker helped me to prepare this cake!

For the frosting you need:

200g nutella
200g butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp granulated sugar

Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar, then vanilla and pinch of salt and mix until combined.

Add nutella and beat until fluffy. When ready to use stir in the granulated sugar without over mixing, it will give you a light crunchiness effect later when savoring the cake.

I used 1M Wilton tip to create the swirls, and decorated it with some cherries. You can replace the cherry with strawberry or chocolate sprinkles if you want.

I put it couple of hours in the fridge before serving. But guess what?! the next day was even better!

By the way, this was my birthday cake (last week) but i didn’t find the urge to post it, I was enjoying reading and over reading, everyday and many times for the whole week, the surprise post my husband did.

Again thank you babes for the beautiful unexpected surprise! Love xx