Strawberry charlotte
A Parisian pâtisserie cake in which walls of ladyfingers hold a light bavarian cream — crème anglaise, gelatine and whipped cream combined. The whole difficulty comes down to the moment the custard meets the whipped cream. Too early, while the custard is warm, and the cream melts and the whole thing stays liquid. Too late, once the gelatine has begun to set, and it seizes into lumps of jelly.
Your own work in that: 35 min.
- Lining the tin 20 min
- Bavarian cream 45 min
- Assembly 15 min
- Chilling 360 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneStand the biscuits upright in the tin
Line the base of a 20 cm springform tin tightly with ladyfingers, trimming them to fit. Stand the rest upright around the walls, sugared side out, tightly packed. Trim their bases so they stand level. Gaps between them are where the cream escapes onto the plate when the ring comes off.
Ingredients: 30 pcs ladyfingers · 200 g strawberries · 60 g sugar · 100 ml water · 1 pcs lemon
Tight, sugar side out — gaps are escape routes for the cream.Soak the base, not the walls
Boil the water with the sugar until it dissolves, then cool. Blend it with 200 g of strawberries and the lemon juice into a syrup and soak only the biscuits lining the base. Leave the walls dry — soaked, they soften, bow outwards and the cake loses its shape.
Ingredients: 30 pcs ladyfingers · 200 g strawberries · 60 g sugar · 100 ml water · 1 pcs lemon
Cook the custard to 82°C
Heat the milk until almost boiling. Whisk the yolks with the sugar, temper with the hot milk, pour back into the pan and cook over low heat, stirring, to 82°C — the custard should coat the spoon. Above 85°C the yolks scramble. Without a thermometer, stop when a finger drawn across the spoon leaves a clean track.
Ingredients: 500 g strawberries · 250 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 120 g sugar · 14 g gelatine · 400 ml whipping cream · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Dissolve the gelatine in the hot custard
Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes, squeeze out and dissolve in the hot custard, stirring. In hot custard gelatine dissolves within seconds; dropped into a lukewarm one it dissolves reluctantly and can leave rubbery lumps.
Ingredients: 500 g strawberries · 250 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 120 g sugar · 14 g gelatine · 400 ml whipping cream · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Add the purée and cool the custard
Blend the strawberries to a purée, sieve it and stir into the custard with the vanilla. Cool, stirring every few minutes, until the custard is down to about 25°C — barely lukewarm to the touch and just starting to thicken. In a bowl of cold water this takes 20–25 minutes. This single measurement decides the whole cake.
Ingredients: 500 g strawberries · 250 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 120 g sugar · 14 g gelatine · 400 ml whipping cream · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Lukewarm custard and loosely whipped cream — the only right moment.Fold in the cream at that moment
Whip the cream to soft, not stiff peaks and fold it into the lukewarm custard in three additions, cutting through with a spatula. Custard that is too warm melts the cream and the mixture collapses; cold, already-setting custard seizes into lumps of jelly.
Ingredients: 500 g strawberries · 250 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 120 g sugar · 14 g gelatine · 400 ml whipping cream · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Fill the tin and chill six hours
Pour the cream into the tin, level it and chill at least 6 hours, ideally overnight. Gelatine reaches full strength only after several hours — a cake unmoulded too early slumps on the plate.
Ingredients: 500 g strawberries · 250 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 120 g sugar · 14 g gelatine · 400 ml whipping cream · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Unmould and arrange the strawberries
Run a knife between the biscuits and the ring and lift it away. Arrange halved strawberries cut side down, in circles from the outside in, and dust with icing sugar. Tie a ribbon around at half the biscuits' height.
Ingredients: 400 g strawberries · 2 tbsp icing sugar
Cut side down, in rings from the outside — they do not slide.
Before you start
The strawberries must be ripe
Bavarian cream has no way to mask sour, pale strawberries — their flavour is essentially the only flavour in this cake. Out of season, make the charlotte with raspberries or with frozen strawberries drained of their juice rather than fresh but tasteless ones.
Leaf gelatine, not powder
Leaves are easy to measure and dissolve without lumps. If using powder, take the same weight but first soak it in 6 tablespoons of cold water for 10 minutes, then dissolve it in the hot custard — sprinkled in dry, it leaves grains in the cream.
Two days in the fridge
A charlotte keeps two days, but the biscuits absorb moisture by the hour and by the second day the walls are soft. Arrange the strawberries no more than two hours before serving — they release juice that runs down the sides.
