The madeleine or petite madeleine is a traditional cake from Commercy, a commune of the Meuse département in northeastern France.

Madeleines are very small cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Their flavour is similar to, but somewhat lighter than, pound cake, with a pronounced butter-and-lemon taste.

Some sources, including the New Oxford American Dictionary, say madeleines may have been named for a 19th century pastry cook, Madeleine Paulmier, but other sources have it that Madeleine Paulmier was a cook in the 18th century for Stanisław Leszczyński, whose son-in-law, Louis XV of France, named them for her. Ava Runge. "Madeleines," in La Città Viola, Issue 3, February 2007, published by the International School of Florence. (Article includes a recipe for Madeleines au Citron.) “Louis XV called this tiny pastry “Madeleine” for the first time in 1755 in honor of his father-in-law’s cook named Madeleine Paulmier. Louis' wife introduced them soon afterwards to the court in Versailles and they became loved all over France. Marcel Proust, a well-known author, describes Madeleines as “a little shell of cake, so generously sensual beneath the piety of its stern pleating…” Note: The citta_viola-february_2007.pdf" target="_blank">url for this pdf file does not work, but a search for "La Citta Viola" will yield a link for "Issue 3 Feb 2007" which may be viewed as an html file. The Larousse Gastronomique offers two conflicting versions of the Madeleine's history.

Aside from the traditional moulded pan, commonly found in stores specialising in kitchen equipment and even hardware stores, few tools are required to make madeleines. Traditional recipes include very finely ground nuts (usually almonds) as well as common cake ingredients such as flour, eggs, butter, sugar and vanilla.

Madeleines were chosen to represent France in the Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the _European Union, on Europe Day 2006.