Raspberry Charlotte Cake
This particular cake, a most delightful Raspberry Charlotte Cake, came out really well and I wanted to share this straight forward to make but spectacular to look at cake with our dear readers. Just in case you need a 'wow' cake to impress and celebrate. Or just to eat and enjoy!
- Prep time
- 35 min
- Cook time
- 25 min
- Yield
- 8 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 30 lady fingers cookies
- 12 fresh raspberries to decorate
- 1/8 cup heavy cream, for decoration
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/4 tsp orange blossom water (optional)
- 2 cups fresh raspberries, 250g /9 oz
- 1/3 cup sugar, 67g
- 1 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin
- 2 tbsp hot water
- 2 tbsp cold water
- 1 1/4 cup heavy cream, 300g
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 cup fresh raspberries, 125g
- 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin powder
- 2 tbsp sugar
Instructions
- 1
Make the sugar syrup: Heat sugar with water in a small pot, stirring until the sugar is melted. Add a tsp of orange blossom water (optional). Let cool completely.
- 2
Line the cake with lady fingers: Slice off the bottom 1/2 inch (the curved bit) of enough lady fingers to encircle the cake. This slice is to allow the lady finger to stand vertically at the sides of the cake.
- 3
Dip lady finger into sugar syrup, soaking just thru, and then position along side of cake tin with the curved side out. Repeat until the cake is completely lined with lady fingers all around the sides.
- 4
Do the same procedure as above to line the bottom of the cake tin, except lay the lady fingers down flat in one or two layers (up to your preference, we used one) and break them as needed to completely line the bottom. For this part it doesn’t matter how it looks, except it should be flat, as you can’t see it once the mousse covers it later.
- 5
Add a layer of fresh raspberries, placing neatly with bottoms pointing up.
- 6
Make the mousse: Macerate the raspberries by adding sugar, tossing and let sit for an hour. There should be quite a bit of juice from the maceration.
- 7
Purée with a hand blender, then strain to remove seeds.
- 8
Add hot water to powdered gelatin, stir until completely dissolved. Add cold water to the gelatin and stir. Mix into the raspberry purée.
- 9
Whip the cream in mixer until soft peaks form. Fold the raspberry purée into the whipped cream. Stir in the lemon juice.
- 10
Scoop into the cake center and smooth the top with a spatula. Cover and let set in the fridge for 2 hours.
- 11
Make the top jelly layer: Purée the raspberries. Put through a fine sieve to separate out the seeds. Sprinkle gelatin powder into raspberry juice and let bloom for 5 mins. Stir in sugar, taste, and add more if needed.
- 12
Heat over low heat until warm, stirring until the sugar is melted. Let cool in fridge until the jelly is thick and sticky but still very pourable.
- 13
Decorating the cake: Add decorative raspberries all round the cake tucked up against the lady fingers, leaving a half inch space between the berries.
- 14
Whip the 1/8 cup heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Add to a piping bag and pipe little puffs of whipped cream between the raspberries.
- 15
Pour raspberry jelly over the cake until no more mousse shows. Add more if you would like to have a thicker jelly layer.
- 16
Let the jelly set by chilling the cake once more for an hour in the fridge.