Charlotte Royale

Charlotte is a dessert created by an English chef in honour of Queen Charlotte, wife of George III of England. Originally, charlotte is a warm dessert made by baking a fruit filling in a mold lined with buttered bread; it is then inverted out of its mold for service. Later on, chef Antoine Careme made a cold version of this dessert, which he called charlotte russe in honour of Russian Czar Alexander in the 19th century. Charlotte russe is lined with lady fingers instead of buttered bread and filled with bavarois instead of fruit filling. Now we know why there's warm and cold charlottes.

Anyway, enough of the history lecture... For this post, I made charlotte royale. This is also a creation of chef Antoine Careme. This is a dome-shaped cold charlotte lined with slices of jelly rolls. For my mold, I made use of a bowl; although it's not exactly dome-shaped, it served it's purpose.

For the components of my version of charlotte royale, you'll need:

• the mandatory jelly roll; I used raspberry jam for the jelly part of the roll
• a round sponge cake for the base (forgot to take a photo)
• raspberry bavarois
• banana bavarois
• peanut butter feuillitine

Once you have all the components, it's time to assemble the charlotte royale!

1. Line the whole of your mold with sliced jelly rolls.
2. Pour the raspberry bavarois a little less than half way of the mold.
3. Put the peanut butter feuillitine on top of the raspberry bavarois.
4. Pour the banana bavarois on top of the feuillitine; make sure to leave enough space for the sponge base.
5. Finish the assembly by placing a round sponge on top of the banana bavarois. For a cleaner finish, make sure the jelly roll is level with the round sponge. I just used kitchen scissors to cut off the excess rolls.
6. Chill the charlotte until the bavarois is set, maybe 4 hours. Invert then serve! **usually the jelly rolls are then glazed with apricot jam for a glossy finish, but I prefer a matte finish so I didn't glaze :)

I really really love the look of charlotte royale. It looks so dainty, grand and elegant. I could imagine having this on a Victorian tea party setting. I even bet Marie Antoinette would have indulged on this tres magnifique creation.

The flavour profile of my charlotte royale is indeed succulent! Although my H didn't exactly like the addition of feuillitine because he doesn't like diverse texture on his desserts; I on the other hand, absolutely love the crunchy oomph the feuillitine gave in contrary to the velvety feel of the bavarois.

This is an absolute doll of a dessert! J'adore the look of charlotte royale so much! Oh, and a little FYI.. Charlotte isn't my real name; it's my blog name, and it is from this dessert where my blog persona was named after :)

Components used for this dessert treat:

• Sponge Cake
• Raspberry Jam
• Raspberry Bavarois
• Banana Bavarois
• Peanut Butter Feuillitine

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte