Procrastinating / Random Baking

I actually haven't done as badly as I thought I would - I expected the working from home and thesis related frustration to bring on a lot more baking than this! But it helps that it's January (aka universal diet month), and so my efforts would have been poorly received. Therapeutic for me, but not for anyone else. So instead I have limited myself to only 3 things since Christmas, and all were baked for company-related purposes: lavender shortbread (the recipe's here - you should try it!), zucchini loaf (my long standing go-to recipe when I want to bake something not too sweet but still treat-ish), and something new! Orange cardamom madeleines! (I haven't changed anything from the incomparable Martha Stewart's recipes, so I've just linked to them here rather than type them out).

The first time I had madeleines was also the first time I had a lavender baked good, and both are now serious baking addictions for me. Anyway, my first madeleine was from the Duchess Bakeshop in Edmonton - an amazing bakery that my friends and I waited in line to get into the first week it opened (a European bakery opening in the land of coffee and donuts is worth waiting in line for!) and then proceeded to linger at our table long enough to try new items as they were brought out. That was a wholly unhealthy but fantastically pleasant day :)

I've since started making my own madeleines, and I've found that they're fairly versatile and really easy. I usually make them with lavender, and I think they're still my favourite, but I've also made lavender-lemon and rose water versions, both of which turned out quite nicely. I came across this Martha Stewart recipe though, and was excited to try the cardamom-orange combination. The orange glaze gives the madeleienes a really nice finish, making them more of a dessert than a biscuit/tea cake, but I think, actually, they'd be just as nice without the glaze and with the orange zest (not the juice - just the zest) mixed directly into the batter. Also, I had some trouble at the beginning finding a proper madeleine tin, but I did end up finding one at Lakeland. Since buying mine though, I've noticed them in fairly random places, like the hardware store in Mumbles. Go figure.

Just out of the oven...

Without orange glaze

With orange glaze