Madeleines – How To Make These Beautiful French Cakes

Some time ago I bought a brand new French Madeleine Pan for no better reason than I had never made these little cakes before nor indeed tasted one. Typically, as soon as my tin arrived other things took priority and so my lovely tin was put into the cupboard for use ‘sometime very soon’.

Well, it’s been languishing in the cupboard for 6 months or more and I was reminded of it while watching the new BBC Food & Drink programme when the lovely Michel Roux made some. Inspired by the simplicity of the recipe I have dug out my madeleine tin and set to making these distinctive and delicate little sponge cakes and I am happy to say, they could not be easier to make!

French Madeleine Recipe

Ingredients

2 free range eggs

100g caster sugar

100g butter, melted and cooled

100g plain flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

grated zest of 1 lemon

Making French Madeleines

Start by preparing the tin. Brush each of the shells with melted butter and dust with flour to make sure that the cakes do not stick. Pre heat the oven to 200c (Gas 6)

madeleine-tray

Put the eggs and the caster sugar into a large mixing bowl and whisk together until they are pale and bubbly.

madeleines-mix-1

Slowly whisk in the melted and cooled butter, flour, baking powder and lemon zest.

madeleines-mix-2

When everything is well mixed, place a dessertspoon of the mixture into each of the shells on the madeleine tin (they should be about 3/4 full).

madeleine-mix-in-tin

Bake at 200c gas mark 6 for about 10 minutes before putting them onto a wire rack to cool.

madeleines-cooked

Eat them very fresh, still slightly warm to enjoy them at their best!

french-madeleines


2 thoughts on “Madeleines – How To Make These Beautiful French Cakes”

  1. I have just made another batch of delicious madeleines, this time with a twist! I’ve flavoured the same mixture as above with orange and sultanas. To make them super moist and as orangey as possible I grated the zest from 1 orange and added it to 50g (2oz) of sultanas. I then added the juice from half of the orange and left it for a few hours until the sultanas had absorbed the juice. They were then stirred into the madeleine mixture before spooning into the tray and baking.

    If you give any of the recipes on my blog a try, I’d love to know how they turn out!

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