Madeleines: the only cake you need to know how to bake

Angel food cake, sponge cake, pound cake…the sheer variety of cake recipes out there is enough to make your head spin! But every home-cook should have at least one cake recipe that they master, and this cake is the one.

Small, spongey, fragrant and easy to hold, madeleines hail from France and have been around since the 18^th century! Despite being a staple childhood snack, they were thrown into the spotlight by Marcel Proust who in his book ‘In search of lost time’ said:

“No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me.”

This humble caked moved him so intensely that it inspired him to write 7 volumes around it!

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Madeleines: the only cake you need to know how to bake

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Angel food cake, sponge cake, pound cake…the sheer variety of cake recipes out there is enough to make your head spin! But every home-cook should have at least one cake recipe that they master, and this cake is the one.

Small, spongey, fragrant and easy to hold, madeleines hail from France and have been around since the 18^th century! Despite being a staple childhood snack, they were thrown into the spotlight by Marcel Proust who in his book ‘In search of lost time’ said:

 

“No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me.”

 

This humble caked moved him so intensely that it inspired him to write 7 volumes around it!

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