madeleine

Definition

A French type of small gateau or sponge cake, often shaped like an elongated scallop shell.

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French madeleine, from earlier gâteau à la Madeleine, after the given name Madeleine (“Magdalene”), of uncertain reference: attributed in some sources to a 19th-century pastry cook Madeleine Paulmier, whose existence is now considered dubious. In sense 2, used with reference to the cake's function in the extract below, taken from Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time.

Example Sentences

• "And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray […] my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane."
• "Madeleine batter can be made in advance and refrigerated."
• "The Robe was thus fixed in my mind as a symbol, and in my memory as a madeleine, of Jewish evil."