Baking recipes for kids

My name is Melanie, I’m 41 years old and the mother of two boys, Alex and Noah. I work full time in a public service, and in my spare time, I write on my blog and create content on my Instagram page. I started baking and preparing pastry 9 years ago, when Alex had his 1st birthday and I wanted to make his cake myself. I didn't know anything about it because I hated to bake, to tell you the truth! I had never baked a cake in my life before I became a mum. I thought it was useless and a waste of time. As time went on, I got a taste for baking cakes and snacks and I love it! In the kitchen, I find a calming influence. On the other hand, if I can choose between sweet and savoury, I prefer to make cakes rather than a stoemp ☺ And the boys' favourite recipe is cookies: crispy and tasty biscuits to be eaten at any time of the day and to take away in your school bag.

A few years ago, after experimenting with the basics of pastry making, I wanted to try something a little more complicated, but I quickly gave up for lack of time. Making a dessert for example, takes a lot of time and between my job, the children and other personal obligations, I couldn't get into it. So I improved my basic recipes and I'm discovering new ones, but I want one thing: to make it simple, easy and tasty! I put myself in the shoes of every mum or dad who doesn't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen but wants to treat their children. Sharing simple pastry recipes for children is therefore my goal.

On my blog and my Instagram account, I share easy recipes such as cookies, frangipane pie, sponge cake but also cereal bars. They were prepared with my new friend, the Kitchen Aid mixer. Yes, after 9 years of baking by hand, my wrist got a little old and dead and I had to move up a gear! I welcomed it with a lot of joy: discovering the ease of a mixer was wonderful, especially for a person like me who often does two things at once and sometimes late at night.  I can assure you that whisking up egg whites with the stand mixer is just crazy 😁 And I'm not even talking about kneading the brioche 😁

For my first mixer, I chose the Artisan 4.8L mixer with extra accessories: an extra bowl (very useful because you can juggle cookies and meringues), a hook, two paddles and a whisk.

The mixer is easy to use: you don't have a thousand buttons everywhere, but just a small lever on the side to raise or lower the mixer head and the one for the gears.

It is stable and powerful, but it is also mega beautiful, let's admit it ☺

For me, this has everything I'm looking for in the kitchen: easy, simple and at the top! And I can assure you that it helps me a lot and makes my job much easier when I start to prepare cookie dough at 10pm ☺

Recipe: Easy Donuts

Ingredients

• 2 eggs

• 100g white sugar

• 100g mascarpone or cream cheese

• 1tsp vanilla extract (or 1 bag of vanilla sugar)

• 100 ml whole milk

• 150g self-raising flour

• 50g maïzena

• 35g melted butter

For the chocolate ganache: 50g dark chocolate, 100g milk chocolate, 50g butter, chopped nuts.

For the sugar glaze: 1 glass of powdered sugar, 1.5 tbsp milk and vanilla extract.

Preparation

1. Place sugar and eggs in the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the wire whip and increase the speed until the mix is light.

2. Gradually add the mascarpone (cream cheese) and the vanilla extract without stopping mixing.

3. Then add milk, butter, flour, maïzena and continue mixing until the batter is light.

4. Preheat the oven at 180°C.

5. Take your mould (I use a silicone one), fill in each cavity and place the tray in the oven for 20 minutes.

6. When ready, let them cool.

For the chocolate ganache: in a metallic bowl, add chocolate and butter. Put the bowl above a hot water saucepan and melt until it's liquid and smooth.

For the sugar glaze: combine the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Mix well until the glaze is smooth.

Recipe: Madeleine Hazelnut & Mandarine

Ingredients

• 100g all-purpose flour

• 1/2 baking powder pack

• 30g hazelnut powder

• 1 pinch of salt (not too much, just a small one)

• 120g unsalted melted butter

• 100g blond sugar or cane sugar

• 3 eggs (room temperature)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• Zest of a mandarin

• Juice of 1 or 2 mandarins (depending on how you want it to taste)

Preparation

1. Place sugar and eggs in the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with wire whip and increase the speed until the mix is light and doubled.

2. Add gradually the flour, baking powder and hazelnut powder mixing at speed 2 (you can also change by using the flat beater, but personally I don't).

3. Add the melted butter and the vanilla extract while mixing.

4. Finally add the mandarin zest and juice.

5. Place the batter in the fridge overnight or min 6 hours. Don't forget to cover the dish otherwise the batter will form a skin.

6. The next day, preheat the oven at 180°C.

7. Take the madeleine pan out of the fridge at the same time as the batter and fill each cavity to 3/4 full.

8. Place the madeleine tray in the oven and cook for 13 minutes. You will see the hump growing and the madeleines are ready when the edges are golden brown and the centre has set.

9. Remove the madeleines from the mould and wait for them to cool.

If you want to add a 'crunchy plus', just melt some chocolate and decorate the madeleines with melted chocolate and chopped nuts.