Is it spelt “canelé” or “cannelé” ? This question alone sparks major debates in Bordeaux, the city where this famous little gâteau made its debut. During the 17th century, a time of booming colonial trade, Bordeaux became the busiest port of France. Ships from the French West Indies would flood into the port, filled with coveted spices, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, rum and sugar. Legend has it that the nuns of a local convent would salvage leftover flour, rum, vanilla and sugar from open gunny sacks and leftover wooden crates found lying around the port. Egg yolks were taken from wine cellars where egg whites were used to clarify wine. These leftover ingredients would then be made into little rum-spiked cakes that were handed out to the poor and the homeless by the nuns themselves.