Santa madeleines, a fun Christmas treat to prepare with children and adults

Those are Santa madeleines. This is a fun Christmas treat to prepare with children and adults.  My older daughter – who is 11 years old – ha that idea for her classmates. The teacher had placed a Christmas sock at the back of each student’s chair. I think those Santas did not stay long in the socks!

It is fun to make those Santa madeleines, not just for the children, I found that pretty cool too!

Before you start, it may be a good idea to wear aprons.

The concept of the Santa madeleine

Make a bunch of madeleines. You will need the special madeleine prints for this. The recipe I use is HERE. If you aren’t a fan of the lemon taste, don’t put any, you can put a dash of good quality vanilla extract.

You will need food colouring of a rich red colour from your supermarket.

Once the madeleines have cooled down, you can start the icing and complete your Santa madeleines! Note that the icing will need a few hours to dry fully, overnight is better.

You will need to make a white icing, a red icing and have found some little eyes bits (from the shops) for the eyes. If you want to add a pompon-like item, you can find little sugar stars for example. you will find those in the baking section of the shops.

Making and applying the icing

To prepare the icing, you need:
  • one lemon or two squeezed lemons
  • 2-3 cups of icing sugar sifted (to avoid any lumps)
  • the red food colouring

For the white icing, place a cup of the sifted icing sugar in a bowl, add about 1/2 lemon juice. Just add a little at the time and start mixing. You basically want something quite pasty, a bit like Nutella when at room temperature (or maybe a tiny bit more fluid). If you went too far, i.e. your icing is too liquid, add more sugar!

For the red, start with the red food colouring and then add the lemon juice. Aim for the same consistency a the white. Be mindful to not mix the utensils you are using.

To apply the icing on your Santa madeleines

When there are kids involved, I am all for simple tools. We used toothpicks to draw the hat border and small spoons for the beard and hat.

To attach the eyes on your Santa madeleine, put a little white icing underneath each eye and “glue” them to the madeleine.

To clean your kitchen bench

The red icing is messy (the white as well but it cleans without a trace).  Use baking soda and a bit of water to form a paste and rub your kitchen bench. it should come off very well!

Gift from the heart

The joy of offering a little something, a gift from the heart

Today, I am going back to one thing cooking and this time of the year is about: the family.   I love involving the children in the cooking activities, I enjoy seeing them exploring and taking initiatives, not just my children, all children!

Welcome into the “Silly Season”

In Australia, this time of the year is called the “silly season”.  It may be called the same elsewhere.  In the Southern hemisphere, not only is it Christmas and New Year Eve, it is also the start of the summer holidays and the end of the school year!

A lot to celebrate, gifts to exchange and opportunities to indulge!  The great thing on that aspect is that being summer, there are lots of opportunities for swims or water activities to stay away of the treats or use the calories brought by those extra treats (assuming some get guilty).

Chocolate truffles, the plain, the salted caramel ones and the kids party ones!

This week my daughters have wanted to make little presents for their teachers.  They decided to make something with chocolate, it quickly became truffles.  Not the classic plain chocolate truffles  I normally do, but a salted caramel chocolate truffle.

 

They were having lots of fun getting their hands really messy and once we were done licking every finger, of course.  As they make me notice when I sent them washing themselves in the bathroom, we all ended up like “Rudolf, the red nose reindeer” if not for the wrong colour! That was not the end of the truffle season here, a few days after that first episode, Ambrine had to bring something for her class party.  Guess what? Truffles! Yes, but this time she decided to adapt it to children’s tastes (RECIPE HERE). She did well!

Kids chocolate truffles. Replacing the cocoa coating with 100s&1000s

Now, rapidly before loosing you, truffles are simply a chocolate ganache, cooled down, rolled in small balls and coated in dutch cocoa powder.  From there, there are many variations possible.  So, go for it, it is EASY and YUMMY!!!

Truffles anyone?