I have shared a bit about my baking journey on my Instagram account, but here on the blog I’m going to start the story off with this Madeleine recipe. I have never really been into baking. Probably because I’ve never been the skinniest, so why have sweets hanging around? Or honestly, it could be the fact that I use no precision when I cook so baking seems so foreign to me. However, I started experimenting with crusts for pies and quiches at the start of quarantine and a little bit of an addiction began. Then about a month ago, I created a menu for a French inspired shoot (pictured in this post) and wanted to keep things classic. I poured over France, the Cookbook for a few days reading the recipes. When I got to a Madeleine cake recipe, it was familiar and the ingredient list was small. Arrogance got the best of me and I told myself I could easily whip them up.
The Madeleine Recipe
PrintA Classic Madeleine Recipe
A classic French madeleine recipe with a hint of lemon and a simple raspberry glaze. It’s the perfect little sponge cake to serve at brunch, for your guests or on the go with the kids.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 13 minutes
- Yield: 16
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
Ingredients
For the Madeleine cakes:
- 1/2 C butter (one stick), softened + a little extra to grease the pan
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1+1/4 C flour, sifted
- Zest of one lemon
For the raspberry glaze:
- 1 large handful fresh raspberries
- 1 C powdered sugar (or more if needed)
- Squeeze of half a lemon for juice (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Grease the Madeleine pan with butter, or your favorite baking grease.
- Whisk the eggs and the sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture becomes white and triples in size.
- Slowly fold in the flour, softened butter and lemon zest.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Each cup should be filled about 3/4 full to avoid over-filling.
- Bake for 8 minutes, or until each Madeleine is perfectly golden brown. Rotate the pan at 4 minutes in order for each cake to have an equal chance at obtaining the perfect color.
- While the cakes bake, make the glaze. Add the raspberries to a sauce pan and heat on medium. Cook until the berries begin to fall apart. Smash the berries through a fine mesh sieve and save the juice in a bowl below. Let cool, then add the sugar and the lemon juice and stir. If the frosting is too thin add more sugar, and a bit of water if it’s too thick.
- Remove the pan from the oven and let the Madeleines cool.
- Gently remove each cake, loosening the edges with a knife if need be.
- Dip each madeleine in the raspberry glaze, and enjoy.
Notes
Recipe adapted from France, the Cookbook. Turning the pan mid-bake is crucial for each cake to bake to a golden brown color. Let the cakes cool and rest before attempting to remove them from the pan. Otherwise you may experience the cake cracking or breaking when removing them from the pan.
Keywords: madeleine recipe, easy dessert, dessert recipe
How to Bake Perfect Madeleine Cakes
If you’re a baker, you are now laughing at me. Lesson learned. Small ingredient list does not equate to “easy to make” however, I was determined to figured out. The batter is simple. Beat the eggs with the sugar until the ingredients triple in size. Slowly add the flour and softened butter – incorporate lemon zest or vanilla, depending on your direction. Done. Here’s where the problems began – the actual baking of the cakes is where things fell apart for me.
Madeleine Baking Essentials
First attempt, the cakes crumbled as I tried to remove them from my brand new, non-stick Madeleine pan that was greased with butter prior to the bake. Could not believe they wouldn’t come out of the pan. So, I grabbed some cookbooks and read through a couple more recipes to check my work.
Second attempt, I used coconut oil as grease and baked a bit longer to avoid the crumble. This looked good – until the cakes snapped when I tried to remove them from the pan. Going off of my fear of under-baking this batch, I over-baked them instead. For my third attempt I went back to butter for the grease but floured each of the madeleine molds as well. I thought for sure this time I would have 16 perfectly baked and easy to remove sponge cakes. Wrong.
Before I completely gave up on my hopes of becoming a (fake) baker, I took a closer look. Some cakes were easy to remove from the pan while others broke. I then realized that some cakes were perfectly golden brown while others were past the point. Those that had that were perfect and golden came out of the pan beautifully.
I know, those of you who have been bakers for life know that you should always rotate your baking sheet for an even bake. For those of you who are like me, I am here to tell you not to forget that simple step. I am also here to tell you that it’s ok to hover around the oven window for the short eight minutes it takes for these things to bake. With this madeleine recipe, they must all be perfectly golden brown in order for you to get those 16 little guys out of the pan.
Those madeleines that crumbled during the making of this recipe were fed to my children and achieved an extremely purposeful life. The end.
