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Strawberry charlotte cake on a cake stand
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5 from 13 votes

Strawberry Charlotte cake (VIDEO)

This no-bake French Strawberry Charlotte cake recipe (Charlotte aux Fraises) consists of fluffy ladyfingers in and around the cake filled with incredibly silky Crème mousseline (pastry cream enriched with butter), and delicious fresh strawberries. It is one of the easiest cakes ever with incredible delicious professional patisserie-looking results!
Prep Time1 hour
Waiting Time4 hours
Total Time5 hours
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Servings: 8
Calories: 422kcal
Author: Katalin Nagy

Ingredients

For the Ladyfingers (if store-bought)

  • 27 pieces Ladyfingers 220g / 8oz store-bought

For the Ladyfingers (if homemade)

Strawberry coulis

  • 200 g Strawberry puree use fresh or frozen strawberry
  • 60 g Granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon Lemon juice

Mousseline creme

Fresh strawberry filling

  • 150 g Fresh strawberries cut into pieces

Decoration

  • Fresh strawberries
  • Mint
  • Edible flower

Instructions

Start with the pastry cream

  • In a large enough bowl with the help of a Hand whisk, mix together sugar and egg yolk until slightly fluffy for about 1-2 minutes
  • Mix in corn starch, flour, and vanilla until throughly incorporated and have a smooth paste
  • Bring milk to boil in a saucepan on medium heat then remove it as soon as it starts simmering. Make sure it is simmering but not crazy boiling, see my tips above
  • Pour the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a Hand whisk.
  • Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until it thickens. Concretely it is approximately 1 min after the first boil. It might get lumpy first, don't worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy
  • If in doubt, strain the pastry cream for a lump free, creamy end result.
  • Add in room temperature soft butter and mix with a rubber spatula until completely incorporated. It is worth to add the butter in 3 stages and mix well after each addition.
  • Place the cream into a shallow bowl and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid skin forming on top. Let it cool

Ladyfingers (if homemade)

  • Heat oven to 200 C / 392°F
  • Beat 4 egg yolks with half of the sugar (50g) until pale and fluffy and sugar fully dissolves, ideally in a stand mixer so it will get fully whipped
  • Using your stand mixer make the meringue. Whip egg whites with the other half of the sugar, adding the sugar in small amount at a time. Whip for about 5 minutes just until shiny stiff peaks.
  • While making meringue sift flour and corn starch into the egg yolk and fold carefully with rubber spatula just until combined. Mixture will become thick, that is normal
  • When the meringue is ready, mix ¼ of of with flour egg yolk mixture to loosen it up then fold in the rest of the meringue very carefully using a rubber spatula
  • Get your piping bag and Wilton 1M piping nozzle tip and pipe 28 equal sized finger shapes leaving enough space in between them.
  • Bake for 10 minutes. After baked, let them cool on Cooling rack

Strawberry coulis

  • In a saucepan cook strawberry puree, sugar and lemon juice for a few minutes untul slighylt thickens
  • Let the mixture cool to room temperature before using

Make the mousseline cream

  • Crème mousseline can be made with room temp pastry cream and room temp butter. Make sure everything is at room temp otherwise the mixture might curdle
  • Once pastry cream cooled to room temp, prepare the mousseline cream by whipping room temp butter first for 1-2 minutes. Start adding in the room temp pastry cream in 4 stages until cream reaches a stable yet fluffy texture
  • Do not over whip the mixture as it can become runny

Assembling the cake

  • Assemble the mousse cake ring (adjustable in size) and set it to 18cm / 7 inch
  • For a neat looking, smooth side surface use acetate cake collar
  • Start to build up the cake from bottom to top. Arrange the ladyfingers neatly and tightly - this will be the side of the cake. Then, arrange the ladyfingers on the bottom - trim the ladyfingers if needed, in order to fit them close to each other
  • Drizzle the ladyfingers with the strawberry coulis. Be mindful with the coulis, we want the ladyfingers to soften, but not to get overly soggy
  • Fill a Piping bag with mousseline cream and pipe half of the cream on top of the ladyfingers. Place strawberry pieces on top of the cream
  • Place another layer of ladyfingers on top and again, drizzle with the strawberry coulis. Pipe the rest of the cream on top. Smooth the top with an offset spatula
  • Place the cake into the fridge for 4 few hours, or overnight
  • Once cake sets, remove the mousse ring.
  • Decorate with fresh strawberries and edible flowers
  • Store in fridge

Video

Notes

INGREDIENT NOTES:
  1. Measure your ingredients with a Digital scale for accuracy
  2. Good quality butter and pure vanilla are the heart of making the cream. Use high-quality 82% fat content European butter and the best quality vanilla you can access
  3. For the ladyfingers, it is actually totally fine for this recipe to use a store-bought one
TECHNIQUE NOTES:
  1. Make sure you read my Expert tips section above to maximize your success. A short recipe alone is not able to cover all the necessary details, and science behind baking.
  2. While making Creme mousseline, it is crucial that both the pastry cream as well as the butter is at room temperature
  3. I recommend cutting the very end of the ladyfingers on one side, so on the bottom of the cake the ladyfingers are straight
  4. Make sure you do not open the cake tin before the cake actually sets

Nutrition

Calories: 422kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 216mg | Sodium: 81mg | Potassium: 181mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 794IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 91mg | Iron: 1mg