Charlotte Strawberry Cake a Semifreddo with Chocolate Ganache
Quick Overview
A crown of pieped sponge cake envelopes a dreamy filling. This fresh dessert is a little more complex but worth it. I made this every year for my daughter Charlotte's birthday party.
Strawberry Charlotte Cake is a spring dessert with a refined flavour, one of the most representative dishes of the French pastry tradition. It is prepared with ladyfingers, cream, and seasonal fruit. The result is a beautiful dessert to look at and excellent to eat.
Introduction of the Charlotte Strawberry Cake
To make this cake, you will need a few tools, such as a cooking thermometer, a piping bag, and a circular cake tray with a hole in the bottom to remove the cake. Overall, it is not a massively difficult cake, but every step needs to be followed precisely.
To make it easy, I divided the Ingredients and Instructions for Charlotte Strawberry Cake into phases
Ingredients for the Charlotte biscuit
250 g of 00 flour
270 g of egg white
250 g of granulated sugar
180 g of egg yolks
NOTE: The Charlotte biscuit has a dough similar to sponge cake; it is very soft and represents the frame of the Charlotte cake. I prefer the Charlotte biscuit, but you can replace it with the classic ladyfingers along the edges and inside, using a red silk ribbon to hold them in place and for effect.
Ingredients for Italian Chantilly cream
500 ml of whole milk
4 egg yolks
120 g of granulated sugar
40 g of corn starch
vanilla pod or lemon peel
+ 250-300 ml of whipped cream
Ingredients for the white chocolate and strawberry ganache
250 g of cleaned strawberries
200-250 g of white chocolate (you can adjust the dose to your liking)
Steps for the Charlotte biscuit
Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Add the egg whites and granulated sugar to a saucepan and heat until the mixture reaches 40 ° or higher. If you don't have a kitchen thermometer, touch the mixture with your finger and see if it is lukewarm.
Add the egg whites to the mixer or into a bowl and whip them until stiff.
In a separate bowl, sift the 00 flour.
Beat the egg yolks with a whisk; you don't need to whip them.
Add the egg yolks to the whipped egg whites and mix gently from bottom to top until you obtain a homogeneous mixture. Add the 00 flour several times, using spoonfuls, and incorporate it into the mixture, constantly moving from bottom to top.
Add some baking paper to the baking tray and use a piping bag with a smooth nozzle to form vertical lines. The lines must be next to each other without spaces and straight. You can see the final effect in the photo. With this dose, I filled a baking tray and a half. Add icing sugar over the entire surface of the Charlotte biscuit.
Cook the Charlotte biscuit at 220° 230° for about 6 minutes.
Remove the Charlotte biscuit from the oven and let it rest.
Steps for white chocolate ganache
Clean and wash the strawberries.
Blend the strawberries in a blender or blender. (I also keep some finely chopped for texture, but this is up to you)
Heat half the strawberry pulp in a saucepan when it is hot, turn off the heat and add the chopped white chocolate into pieces to melt and mix. I usually do this bain-marie to make sure the hit is consistent throughout.
Let it cool slightly.
Add the other half of the pulp and mix everything.
Set aside to cool.
Assembly of the Charlotte Strawberry Cake and Chantilly Cream
Add some baking paper to a plate.
Take a cake ring and cover its inside with strips of buttered baking paper to aid adhesion to the ring.
Cut a strip of Charlotte biscuit and fill one side, then cut another and cover the other side. You must cover all sides of the ring without leaving any spaces. You can also similarly use ladyfingers. (You will need very sharp knives or wet them just slightly to help the cutting) but not too much, or they will collapse.
Add the first disc on the base,
Add a first layer of Italian Chantilly cream.
Add the cold white chocolate and strawberry ganache with a spoon.
Add chopped strawberries to taste.
Add the second disc of Charlotte biscuit and place it in the freezer for at least 4 hours. If you are not planning to eat it immediately, you can preserve it in the freezer until you need it; make sure to take it out of the freezer about three hours beforehand and leave it in the fridge.
After this time, delicately turn out the ring and cover the entire surface with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.
The Charlotte Strawberry Cake and Chantilly cream is ready.
