Madeleine Cakes - Origins
While associated with the traditional British Afternoon Tea, Madeleines are said to have originated in France in the 18th Century, in the town of Commercy, where they were a specialty of the area.
The actual origins have been lost in time, but theories abound.
Origins of Madeleine Cakes - A Royal Story
One legend says they are named after a young girl named Madeleine, made these for Stanislas Leszczynska, the deposed king of Poland exiled to France.
Madeleines At The Palace of Versailles
He became the Duke of Lorraine, and gave some Madeleine Cakes to his daughter, Marie, the wife of Louis XV. Marie often served them to guests at the Palace of Versailles, and so their popularity soon spread.
Origins of Madeleine Cakes - A Secret Recipe Story
Another version is that Madeleine Cakes are named after the St. Mary Magdelen convent in Commercy.
The nuns sold the recipe to local bakers during the French Revolution, when all the convents and monasteries were ordered to close down.
Madeleine Cakes in Literature
Proust immortalised them in his unfinished novel, Remembrance of Things Past, which was published in 1923. He wrote -
She sent for one of those squat plump little cakes called “petites madeleines,” which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell …
I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake.
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. An exquisite pleasure invaded my senses…
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