English Madeleines

As you can tell, I've been on a bit of a baking spree lately! I decided to make another entry for this month's AlphaBakes. I looked through my books for 'E' inspiration and found this in my Mary Berry Ultimate Cake Book - English Madeleines.  I've made French madeleines before but never English Madeleines.  The main difference is their shape - the French ones are traditionally shell shaped whereas the English ones are made in dariole moulds and are covered in jam & dessicated coconut and topped with a cherry.

AlphaBakes is a monthly blogging challenge hosted this month by myself and co-hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes. Each month, we pick a random letter and the idea is to bake something with that letter as the main ingredient or name of bake. This month, the letter is "E".  Today is the deadline for Feb AlphaBakes so make sure you've emailed them across.

 I knew I'd get a chance to use my dariole mould one day.

 dessicated coconut, glace cherries and strawberry jam. 

 ready to go in the oven 

 Have everything ready to assemble your madeleines. 

 Use a fork to hold the cake, brush jam over it, roll it in coconut and top with half a cherry.

 Cute little cakes

Recipe from Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book 

Makes 12 madeleines

100g butter

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

100g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4-6 tablespoons strawberry jam, sieved

50g dessicated coconut

6 glace cherries, halved

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Place all the ingredients for the cake in a mixer and mix until smooth.
• Fill the dariole moulds until 2/3 full.
• Bake for about 20 minutes or until well risen and firm to the touch. 
• Allow to cool completely.
• Trim the bottom of the cakes so they stand independently. 
• Warm the sieved jam in a pan and set aside. 
• Use a fork to spear the base of the cake to hold them.
• Brush them with the warm jam, then roll in the coconut to coat.
• Add half a glace cherry on top to finish.