One of my all-time favorite desserts are these tiny cakes called canelé. A lovely version is served at Les Madelines bakery in downtown Salt Lake City, and I always make sure to grab one when I go there. They are dark and caramelized, crunchy on the outside, chewy and custardy on the inside, and sometimes scented with vanilla or orange. I thought I would try making them at home, because why not. They require a silicon mold and food grade beeswax, so it ended up being a very pricey little experiment. Thanks to the internet I was able to find some recipes, and was able to get the supplies to make them. The silicon mold is not as good as the traditional copper molds that the bakeries use, but the copper ones are prohibitively expensive. There was a lack of crunch and darkness that likely could have been achieved using the copper molds, but they were still good. After it was all over, I still had a lot of leftover beeswax, so my Mom and I used some to make reusable waxed fabric food wraps.
