Madeleine Paulmier labours at her kitchen bench, producing, among other things to be sure, small cakes for her master Stanislaus I, the exiled king of Poland. Or is she instead in the employ of Cardinal Paul de Gondi (better known under his pen name of Cardinal de Retz, the memoirist of French fame), in the mid-1600s?
For whom she laboured matters little in the end: the scent is cold and the track buried deep. What does matter are the shell-like creations she left us: the sugar-dusted, honeyed madeleines that, though humble of size and appearance, thrill the tastebuds like Easter morning after a long, grey Lent. Moments of grace and light, all sins forgiven.
Madeleine: would you have clapped floured hands with pleasure at the thought of the fame that awaited your simple treat? Or would you have shrugged your shoulders and muttered something about ‘not talking piffle’ or ‘needing to get on’? But here is the implausible truth of it: your modest cake not only tumbled, summer-warm golden, down centuries-long culinary staircases to our very own ovens and plates: along the way, it also lodged itself into the preternaturally delicate memory of a neurasthenic child who would, come later years, glorify you in his remembrance of things past.
Here, then, lies our impossibly delightful dilemma. What should we be gladdest of: Marcel Proust’s madeleine-inspired recollections on the passing of a life, rendered in half-page sentences and detail that would make a pointilliste painter proud? Or Madeleine Paulmier’s gift of a three-egg, caster sugar, orange rind, vanilla, flour and baking powder confection, so quick to rise and yet so swift to perish if one’s attention should wander and the oven timer fail?
On my kitchen bench: twelve scorched madeleines, deep caramel of complexion, headed for the bin; twelve paler madeleines that will procure some pleasure in this week’s office morning tea; and twelve perfect madeleines, this evening’s joy at the meal’s close, when legs stretch under the table and the fragrance of tea casts its quietening spell.
