Shell-shaped cake · Sold on the platform
Madeleine de Commercy
Photo: myself (Bernard Leprêtre) / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.5
From the late 19th century until World War II, women with wicker baskets sold madeleines to passengers on Commercy station platforms, a sight found nowhere else on the French railways.
A small buttery sponge cake with lemon zest, baked in a shell mould with a hump on top, sold loose or by the box in Commercy shops.
Why it's made this way: Legend says it is named after Madeleine Paulmier, who baked it for Duke Stanislas Leszczyński in Commercy in 1755.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3422 dishes from 118 countries.
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