Chocolate charlotte cake

The charlotte, charlotte or Charlotte cake is a dessert of French origin of the classic type. It is a cold tart that will appear lined with biscuits of soletilla and filled with a Bavarian cream or bavarois , generally of the imon . Bavarian cream is a sweet in which English cream, gelatin and whipped cream are combined, it is usually prepared from fruits although the imagination will allow us to prepare almost anything, lemon, strawberry, mango or nougat.

From this definition the variations are infinite, we can prepare a charlotte not only of lemon, as it would be the original, but of other fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, pears or apples and fill the tart combining the cream with different layers of biscuits, since be of soletilla or Genoese cake. Another possibility is today’s recipe, a chocolate charlotte cake.

It is a very simple cake in which the only thing we have to take into account, and I say this from experience, is that the cream is cold before the assembly of the cake, so we will prevent the biscuits from falling apart. If we choose the option of preparing a layer of Genoese sponge cake for the filling, we will not have this problem anymore, although the work will be a little more. Instead of the Bavarian chocolate cream, we can prepare the filling with a pastry cream or a mousse , all the options are valid and perfect, the combination of well-prepared and homemade creams with sponge cake, in addition to a classic, are always a success.

Preparation of the chocolate charlotte

1. We put the gelatine leaves in a bowl with water to hydrate them for 15 minutes. We separate the whites from the yolks and discard the whites. In a bowl mix the yolks with the sugar. We beat well until forming a foamy cream.
2. In a saucepan, heat the milk with the chopped chocolate. Without stopping stirring and over medium heat, heat the mixture until the chocolate has dissolved. We remove from the fire.
3. Add the beaten yolks with sugar and put the mixture back on the fire, stirring constantly with a few rods. It is important to regulate the temperature to prevent the yolks from curdling, the mixture should not boil. When we see that the cream begins to thicken we remove it from the heat. Add the already hydrated gelatin leaves, stir until they dissolve and reserve the mixture until it has cooled.
4. While the chocolate, milk and yolk mixture cools, we whip the cream with a whisk. It is important that the cream is very cold to achieve this. We incorporate the cream into the chocolate mixture and integrate into the mixture with a spatula. Before assembling the cake, it is essential that the mixture is cold, otherwise it would melt the biscuits from the soletilla with the heat. When I say cold I don’t mean that we have to put it in the fridge, it must be at room temperature, but not curdled.
5. We line a removable mold with baking paper, for this we spread butter on its surface and glue the sulfurized paper. We place a base of biscuits of soletilla dipping them a little in milk, it is not necessary to soak them, only with dipping them a few seconds is enough.
6. Pour half of the Bavarian chocolate cream on the layer of biscuits with great care, it is important that we do not add the cream at once since we could break the biscuits. We return to place a new layer of biscuits of soletilla and we water with the rest of the cream. We keep the tart in the fridge until it sets, for about 4 hours.
7. Once the cream has curdled, we remove the cake from the mold and line it perimeter with biscuits. We can decorate it with a bow or cord that will also help fix the biscuits and that they do not come loose when serving the cake.

It is a very simple recipe that you can prepare with the children of the house, and play to decorate this cake as you like, colored shavings, cocoa powder, icing sugar, with any of these decorations it will be perfect for a snack or a birthday, enjoy it.

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You can see all the photos of the step by step in the next album.