Recipe: Strawberry Charlotte Cake Recipe »
Strawberry Charlotte or Charlotte Russe is a lovely, light cake. Made with a fresh strawberry bavarois and lady finger biscuits, there's also a surprise layer of strawberry jelly inside. It's the sort of cake that looks difficult but isn't at all!
A Russian Charlotte was invented by influential patissier Marie-Antoine Carême (who also invented the toque or chef's hat). He named it after his employer King George IV's daughter Princess Charlotte and it's essentially a Bavarian cream and lined with lady finger biscuits surrounding it.
I made this cake when I bought too many strawberries (I have a weakness for small strawberries as they are so adorable). I actually bought six punnets envisaging all sorts of recipes. I actually thought that this cake would take a while but the beauty of it is that the bought sponge fingers add a lot to the decoration and I had half a packet left over from a tiramisu.
It came together freakishly quickly insofar as time spent making went (the effort vs reward/applause ratio was excellent). Plus it tasted delicious, of sweet berries and vanilla with the most ethereal lightness. I also added an extra layer of fruit jelly as a surprise because I had so much time.
Speaking of time, I recently wrote about my experience at the airport where I almost missed my flight to Thailand. I got to the airport early as I usually do, but I had one task I had to undertake and it was a really embarrassing one. It was to buy a selfie stick. A friend of mine had bought one recently and as cringeworthy as they are when in huge numbers at large tourist attractions, they also do tend to get better photos when you're filming videos etc.
Unfortunately, my time at the airport was eroded by crazy airline kerfuffles so I didn't buy the selfie stick. When we got to Bangkok airport for a two hour transit I snuck away subtly to look for one. I didn't know the other two writers very well at that stage and I didn't want to be the vain selfie stick buying a@#hole. But I was out of luck as there was no electronics shop in the terminal. Everywhere we went, I'd keep an eye out. Finally it got to crunch time and we were going to be in the centre town, and that was pretty much my only opportunity to buy one the whole trip.
I pulled the tour guide aside and asked him if it were possible to maybe stop by a store sometime to buy one. That one request turned into half a dozen stops because I wanted a good quality one (I'm trying to buy less disposable/throwaway things). My embarrassing secret was out.
Touch the heavens that the two writers I was travelling with were very lovely. They made fun of me in a light hearted way and I totally deserved the ribbing. I finally got my hands on a selfie stick with bluetooth. It was pretty expensive but I wasn't to quibble after inconveniencing others. I took it to the resort and turned it on and the bluetooth worked for a total of 5 minutes before it died. Turns out I was the selfie stick a@#hole with the dead selfie stick! ;)
So tell me Dear Reader, do you use selfie sticks? Do you use them for selfies or for filming? And have you ever made a bavarois? Do you look for recipes with a good effort to reward ratio?
Reader Comments
Loading comments...Add Comment