After following a whole bunch of bakers on Instagram, She Sells Seashells was one of the accounts that inevitably popped up on my recommended feed. Their bakes looked really enticing so I decided to try them out (:
- My order:
- Original financier made with Isigny Sainte-Mère butter ($3.20)
- Tie guan yin and strawberry madeleine ($3.50)
- Valrhona chocolate madeleine ($3.50)
- Matcha and yuzu madeleine with ceremonial matcha ganache ($5.50)
- Matcha madeleine with ceremonial grade matcha ganache ($4.90)
- Chocolate blueberry lavender madeleine ($4)
- Spent: SGD$24.60
They have a small physical store at HillV2 shopping mall for walk-ins and an online website for placing pre-orders. Pre-orders open every Monday at 6pm for the upcoming week but do check their website for the most updated ordering instructions.
Delivery (for a fee of $9.90) and self-collection options are available. It’s also possible to arrange for your own courier to pick it up but it was pretty pricey in my case, so I personally made my way down to the store to collect my order!
I was excited to dig in when I opened the box as everything looked and smelled great. The first one I tried was the original financier made with Isigny Sainte-Mère butter. This butter was amazingly fragrant! My husband remarked that the financier itself was hard in all the right places (lol, the edges, basically). Its texture was indeed on the firmer side so on one hand, it held together well but on the other hand, it can feel a bit dry on the palate.
Next up was the tie guan yin and strawberry madeleine. This had a wonderfully moist texture compared to the financier, delivering a subtle tea flavour with lovely sweet pops from the strawberry bits.
Third was the valrhona chocolate madeleine that came with tiny pockets of slightly bitter, richer molten chocolate inside. I love the fluffy, chocolatey batter that wasn’t overly heavy or “heaty”.
On to their signature bake – the matcha and yuzu madeleine with ceremonial matcha ganache! This is crafted with a blend of three exquisite Marukyu-Koyamaen matcha powders and baked with bits of yuzu peel inside. Although the matcha is meant to be less intense according to the description on the website, it was still pretty strong for me. There was an apparent bitterness that overpowered everything else. The ganache was nice though – smooth, shiny and not too sweet.
A similarly flavoured item is the regular matcha madeleine with ceremonial grade matcha ganache, one of their best-sellers. Surprisingly, this wasn’t as overwhelming as the matcha yuzu one and was very pleasant to eat.
Last but not least, the chocolate blueberry lavender madeleine. This one had a mild but very present lavender flavour with little bursts of blueberries (I didn’t notice if they were jam blobs or the actual fruits as I was busy relishing the yumminess of it all).
My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. These goodies make for a perfect accompaniment to an afternoon tea-sipping session! They generally had very well-balanced flavours, and it felt like a lot of heart went into finding the best methods to execute these bakes. I personally enjoyed the tie guan yin and strawberry madeleine, as well as both the chocolate madeleines, just can’t pick a favourite 😛 I didn’t quite vibe with the matcha flavoured ones as they were a tad bitter (but I’m not a matcha person to begin with). The madeleines had a softer, fluffier texture in comparison to the financier, which was slightly drier and harder. However, I only had one financier in my order so I’m not sure if I just happened to receive an outlier. Anyway, I do find these bakes to be on the pricier side but they definitely make for a fantastic gift or just a pick-me-up treat for yourself!
If this post helped you in some way and you’d like to buy me a coffee, I’d be incredibly grateful (:
Dania Experiences 