Le petit madeleines and friends for tea

Madeleines and tea is that perfect combination don’t you think? Those golden, sweet little sea shell shaped sponge cakes. My grandmother used to make them for tea and also varied the recipe to include almonds for Christmas cookies.

It’s been a while since I made madeleines so having my friend Diane come for tea yesterday was a great excuse to make some.

I got out my Larousse Gastronomic and looked at the recipe. Three eggs. Right, only one egg in the fridge. Emergency trip to the grocery store four blocks away.

Now this is something I always walk, but since Diane was due to arrive in 30 minutes, I drove. Big surprise, the road to the front entrance was closed for road work. Not a problem, I thought, just go around two blocks, duck down the back one-way road and park up. Big surprise! The back road was closed for road work. At this point the thought had occurred to me that I probably should have walked. So I parked as close as I could, (having funneled down the only open road twice), and walked in to get the eggs. Oh boy were the staff of the grocery store livid. The city had issued these two permits without realising they were allowing a complete block of traffic to the store!

I must admit all that running around made me feel slightly like a poor baby and so I bought myself some pink tulips just because.

By the time I got home I had about ten minutes before my friend came and I made the madeleines without letting the batter get completely cool, so the little cakes didn’t get that round puffy effect.

But boy were they good.

My madeleine pan is very vintage because it used to belong to my grandmother and only holds six cakes to bake at once but as soon as the first batch was out of the oven Kerstie came in on her way thru and grabbed a bunch for herself, for Adam and Binky. Chloe came home from uni and had some too. I had a second one for afternoon tea and made my tea in my grandmother’s Czech tea cup.

Four of the cakes lasted till after supper but then they were devoured for desert.

And I have to leave you with this little story: Came home this afternoon to see a glass lying on the kitchen floor with some milk deep inside. All the spilled milk and milk around the edge had been lapped up with just a missed drop or two and I think the expression on this little scrubby cat says it all. 🙂

Linking up with Artful Affirmations for tea cup Tuesdays…a day late.