English Madeleines

It's funny what you wake up in the morning feeling inspired to do! I haven't made Madeleines since I was a child, but we have some visitors coming today and for some reason I decided they'd be the perfect cakes to make.

A little bit of Googling for inspiration revealed my interpretation of Madeleines was very different to most people's, and I now know that what I made are actually known as "English Madeleines", and are very different from the American kind.

I couldn't find a recipe anywhere, so bluffed my way partly from memory, partly from an adapted Victoria Sponge recipe and the results were great! (and my mother who has an official Madeleine recipe confirmed later it's nearly exactly the same as this)

If you fancy making these you'll need some dariole moulds, but if you aren't particular about the shape of the cakes, muffin trays or whatever you have to hand would probably do you just as well. This quantity filled 9 dariole moulds.

125g butter
125g sugar
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
Couple of drops of vanilla essence
1 tablespoon hot water

Cream the butter and sugar, add both eggs and vanilla essence with a tablespoon of flour, mix well, then fold in the remaining flour. Divide between the well greased moulds filling them 3/4 full.

Bake at 180c for about 15 minutes or until the cakes are firm and golden.

Let the cakes cool in their tins and then turn on to a cooling rack. Trim the rounded tops, so that each end of the cake is flat. Resist the urge to eat all the trimmings, save yourself for the finished result!

Turn cakes upside down on newly cut (wider) end. Using a skewer, coat the cakes in about 6 tablespoons of strawberry jam which you have warmed over the hob. (I ran out of strawberry jam halfway through and used apricot too, and it was just as good) then coat in desicated coconut and finally top with half a glace cherry.

And voila, the ultimate, slightly retro English tea cake!

I'd love to know if anyone makes their own!