Yvonne & Guite's Delightful Canelés (The Lesser-Known French Pastry!)

The first time my French co-worker brought in a batch of her freshly baked canelés, I peered into her cake tin with some confusion. "What are they?" I asked. "Canelés!" she pronounced, in her beautiful, perfect French accent. "They're from the Bordeaux region, near where I'm from," she explained.

And while it might be some time before the sweet canelé rises to the level of popularity its French, pastel-pastry cousin, the macaron, commands, there's no doubt about it: canelés are the new madeleines, y'all, and Yvonne & Guite have perfected this delicious French pastry with their beautifully simple, traditional recipe.

When I tried a canelé for the first time, was love at first bite: a soft, pillowy baked custard center surrounded by a glazed, caramelized crust, the canelé has more depth than madeleines and financiers and the sweet little crown-like shape is irresistible. Unlike other canelé makers in London who feature a variety of different flavors, Yvonne & Guite focus on making traditional canelés using milk, eggs, sugar, flour, butter, vanilla, and rum.

I love the founder, Caroline's, inspiring story: originally from Vendée, France, Caroline began a career in asset management in Paris, then London, before turning her eye to her own business after being unsatisfied with the canelé recipes she found in recipe books. Convinced that canelés could give cupcakes and macarons a run for their money, she set off to develop the perfect recipe with a French pastry chef and ... et voila.

I sampled some of Caroline's fresh canelés with a hot cup of tea for breakfast (sorry not sorry! I'm not one of those bloggers who has a green smoothie every morning, unfortunately) and found myself back in canelé heaven: the perfectly glazed outer crust gave way to a ever-so-slightly chewy and subtle vanilla-flavored center.

It's a lovely alternative to cake, if you wanted to serve it for afternoon tea. As I was placing them on my mini cake stand, I also had visions of a tower of canelés, which would work beautifully well for birthdays or weddings!

I've been meaning to buy canelé baking molds to try making them myself, but might just end up bulk-buying from Yvonne & Guite instead. Oops.

Have you ever tried a canelé? What did you think?

Thank you, Yvonne & Guite for my beautiful box of canelés! Want your own box? Right now, Yvonne & Guite's distributor, Bonativo.co.uk, are offering £5 off canelé orders with the code YVONNE5. To keep up with Yvonne & Guite's delicious news, follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. All opinions are my own.