All photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

THE DISH
Carrot spice Madeleine cookies (recipe here)

THE INSPIRATION
Karaocake is a dreamy, synth-heavy French indiepop band who one of my coworkers discovered last year on eMusic and the rest of us quickly fell in love with. For a long time I’d been wanting to collaborate on a recipe with my friend Eleanor Whitney (of the cooking blog 2 Cooks in the Kitchen and the Brooklyn band Corita), and this was a perfect fit because of her love of all things French. Karaocake got their name through a silly joke involving carrot cake, and Madeleines are a French pastry as lovely and delicate as the band’s music, so carrot cake-flavored Madeleines were a perfect fit!

I’m really proud of this one, and have to salute Eleanor for the fact that we very loosely followed a recipe but they still came out perfectly. They were a blast to make, mostly because between Eleanor, our friend Dominick (who took the amazing photos) and me, there was lots of giggling and goofing off — the best way to do anything in the kitchen. We also devoured almost the whole first batch of these tiny cookies before the second tray went in the oven…

I should also note that my amazing roommate Sneha returned from Indiana after Labor Day weekend with a KITCHEN-AID STAND MIXER. IN HER SUITCASE. It was given to her a couple years ago and she didn’t really use it, but now it is here, in Brooklyn, making my kitchen dreams come true. This was my first time using it!

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