• This recipe can make 16 standard size madeleines
• Preheat the oven to 425 F (220 C) for conventional oven for at least 10 minutes. For convection oven, lower the temperature by 20 F (15 C).
• Brush the madeleine mold with melted butter really well. Even if your pan says non-stick, I highly recommend that you grease it. Mine is a nonstick too but they still get stuck for whatever reason. If you find that the cakes keep getting stuck to the mold even after applying butter, dust them with some flour after applying the butter and tap off any excess. This usually works pretty well

Prepare the batter:

• Finely chop the gula Melaka if it comes in a block, so they melt faster. Melt the butter along with the gula Melaka in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Strain the mixture and let it cool down to at least warm, about 122 F/50 C
• If you use coconut sugar, you don't need to melt it with the butter, you can combine it with the eggs at the step below
• Whisk egg, coconut sugar (if that's what you use instead of gula Melaka), milk, and vanilla extract until the sugar dissolves. Sift in the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Use a whisk to combine by start to stir from the middle moving ourwards to combine without overmixing. As long as you don't see pockets of flour, don't mix anymore. It will smooth out after you add the butter
• Add the butter mixture and use a spatula to fold it in until combined. The butter combines nicely to the batter because there's egg in there. The egg helps the butter and the batter to emulsify nicely. The batter should be smooth and shiny

To chill or not to chill the batter:

• I have experimented with both. You can bake straight away and still get nice hump. If you choose to chill the batter, I notice that the humps get slightly bigger. So, it's up to you. Without resting the batter still gives the cake nice humps. As you can see in the photos, those were from batter not resting in the fridge. If you choose to rest the batter in the fridge, rest it for 30 minutes. Don't do any longer than this as the butter gets too hard.

Fill up the pan:

• Transfer the batter to a piping bag so you can fill up the mold easier without much mess and it gives you more control. Alternatively, you can also use a measuring spoon. Fill up about 90% of the mold cavity. About 1 tablespoon if you use a measuring spoon. You don't need to even out the batter as it spreads as it bakes

Baking:

• Place the pan in the oven middle rack and bake for 5 minutes. Then without opening the oven's door, reduce the temperature to 375 F (190 C) for conventional oven. For convection oven, lower the temperature by 20 F/15 C and bake for another 5-6 minutes or until golden brown with a nice hump. When you lightly press on the cake, it springs up lightly and no longer feels wet if you stick a toothpick into the hump to test for doneness

Cooling:

• Immediately remove from the oven and use a toothpick or a small silicon spatula to help you flip the cakes over on their side to cool down in the pan for about 5 minutes and then remove to cooling rack after that. If you put them straight to the cooling rack, there will be cooling rack prints on the cake because the cake was still very soft when they are hot

Baking the next batch:

• If you don't have pans to bake all 16 (I can only bake 12 at a time), increase the oven temperature back up again. Just wait until the pan has cooled down. I know it's a bit of inconvenient, but it is to ensure we get nice humps.
• Clean off any residue on the pan if any, and brush with melted butter again and dust with flour and put it in the freezer for 15 minutes and pipe or spoon the batter like what you've done before and proceed with baking

Serving:

• Serve them on the same day because that's when they taste the best. I don't recommend making them in a big batch for sure! If you have leftovers, store them in an air-tight container after they have cooled down completely. They can be kept at room temperature for about 2-3 days. You will notice that the texture may not be as good as they were on the day you bake them, they lose that slight crispness after being stored.
• I don't recommend keeping them in the fridge or freezing them as they dry out pretty fast and the texture suffers!