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On a white plate , in the morning light , sits a small cake the colour of dark caramel . This is the canelé , the best - known pastry of Bordeaux , in south - western France . It is no more than five centimetres tall , and deep , regular grooves run down its sides . The secret is in the mould . Canelés are traditionally baked in small fluted moulds made of copper , which carries heat quickly . They are often brushed with beeswax . When the thin batter meets the hot copper , the outside caramelises at once . The crust turns crisp and almost black , while the inside stays soft and custard - like , flavoured with rum and vanilla . Nobody is sure where the cake began . A popular tradition says it was born in the convent of the Annonciades , a community of nuns in Bordeaux . In another version , wine makers used egg whites to clear their wine and gave the leftover yolks to the nuns . It is a good story , but there is no firm proof . The written history is clearer . In 1663 , local bakers registered their own guild . They made a simpler , older cake , but the pastry makers kept milk and sugar for themselves . In 1755 , a royal council at Versailles ended that monopoly . By 1785 , the city had at least 39 shops of these bakers . The guilds disappeared with the French Revolution , and the cake slowly faded . Later , bakers brought the cake back , now flavoured with rum and vanilla . In 1985 , a brotherhood of bakers was founded , and it dropped one n from the old spelling , cannelé . Today , people in Bordeaux and the Gironde eat millions of canelés every year . A small one goes with morning coffee ; a larger one goes with afternoon tea . Hold one up to the window and its grooves catch the light , dark gold outside and soft gold within . 
