Pretty Fresh Fruit Charlotte

This red fruit Charlotte is one of the prettiest cakes that combines a classic sponge cake, creamy Bavarian cheese mousse filling, and fresh red fruits. It is a fancy-ish dessert for any celebration.

Over time, Charlotte cakes have gained widespread popularity. This is attributed to the culmination of its visually appealing presentation and its irresistible taste.

Jump to:

• What is a Charlotte cake?
• Why you should try this recipe
• Ingredients
• How to make fruit Charlotte cake
• Expert Tips
• Storing and freezing
• Recipe FAQ
• Love Charlotte cakes? Try these next!
• Need to adjust your baking pan size?
• Recipe card
• Comments

While most fruit Charlottes are made with lady fingers, this red fruit charlotte or charlotte aux fruits rouges is prepared with soft and fluffy sponge cake.

What is a Charlotte cake?

Charlotte cake is a classic molded French dessert lined with ladyfingers or sponge cake and filled with fruit puree, custard, mousse, or Bavarian cream.

To make hot Charlotte, the mold is lined with stale bread slices dipped in butter and filled with, for example, sautéed apples and then baked.

Why you should try this recipe

• This fresh fruit Charlotte cake is an elegant choice for a dessert that would fit any celebration table. Serve it as a birthday fruit cake, celebrate Independence Day or the Fourth of July, or enjoy a slice with your afternoon tea or coffee.

• The Charlotte recipe is straightforward: make the cake within a day or split the preparation into two days. It is not as complicated as it seems.

Ingredients

Here is a quick overview of what ingredients you will need. Follow the full recipe below for exact amounts and instructions. I recommend making the recipe as written for the best results.

• Flour: Use all-purpose flour.

• Sugar: The recipe calls for granulated or caster sugar.

• Potato starch: It is recommended to utilize potato starch over cornstarch in this particular recipe. Although both options may be substituted in most recipes, this recipe calls for a clear and vivid fruit layer, making it an exception. Opting for corn starch instead may result in an imperfectly translucent fruit layer.

• Eggs: Use large whole eggs at room temperature.

• Red food color: Use as much as you want to get the red color of the sponge (this recipe uses 100 drops of the red food color by McCormick).

• Gelatin: Use gelatin sheets (gold) with a strength of 200 bloom. To substitute sheet gelatin with powdered gelatin, consider that 3 ½ gelatin sheets equal one powdered gelatin envelope. Use ¼ cup (60ml) of cold water per envelope.

• Fresh fruits: Use any three kinds of seasonal fresh fruit, such as raspberries, cherries, blackcurrant, blueberries, and blackberries.

• Cream: Opt for cold heavy or heavy whipping cream with at least 30% fat content to whisk it properly.

• Fresh farmer cottage cheese: Opr for farmer's cheese, preferably dry curd cottage cheese (not the regular curd cottage cheese that is salty).

How to make fruit Charlotte cake

Making fruit Charlotte cake involves a few steps: preparing red fruit confit, making a sponge cake and cheese mousse, and assembling the cake.

Make red fruit confit

Cover a 6 inches (15 cm) round stainless steel cutter with doubled plastic film, make a plastic bottom, and put it aside. Soak gelatin in cold water for 10 minutes.

In a saucepan, place the whole berries and half of the sugar. Heat the mixture over low heat for about 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the rest of the sugar mixed with potato starch, stirring constantly, and let boil for 1 minute.

Remove the saucepan from heat and stir in the drained gelatin (photo 1). Pour the confit into the ring and freeze for 3 hours (photo 2).

Make sponge cake

Preheat the oven to 340°F (170°C). Using a flour sifter, sift all-purpose flour and potato starch.

Separate egg whites from egg yolks with an egg separator and reserve the whites.

Using an electric mixer in a bowl, beat egg whites and gradually add the remaining sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue (photo 3). In a separate bowl, whisk yolks with half of the sugar until whitish (photo 4).

Then add the beaten egg whites to the egg yolks and sugar mixture (photo 5).

Add the dry sifted mixture (flour and starch) in several times and gently mix it with a rubber spatula (photo 6). Tyr not to deflate the batter and keep as much air as possible.

Add red food color as much as you wish and gently mix (photo 7).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the batter to the thickness of about ⅕ inches (5 mm) with a long bent spatula (photo 8). Bake for about 10 minutes and let it cool.

Invert the baked sponge on a clean sheet of parchment paper and remove the parchment paper from its bottom. Let the sponge cool down.

Cut a sponge disk of 6.7 inches (17 cm) in diameter (use a cake ring or a plate) and strips of 2 inches (5 cm) wide.

Line a mousse cake mold adjusted to 7 ½ inches (19 cm) in diameter with an acetate cake collar and place it on parchment.

Cover the inside edges of the mold with sponge strips and place the sponge disk at the bottom of the cake mold: it has to fit inside the lined mold perfectly (photo 9). 

Make cheese mousse

Soak gelatin sheets in cold water for 10 minutes. Whisk whipping cream to get the whipped cream (at soft peaks), cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate (photo 10).

In a saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks with an electric hand whisk. Add the hot sugar syrup to the yolks, whisking constantly. 

Then add the drained gelatin while the mixture is hot and continue to beat until the preparation completely cools down (photo 11). Add farm cottage cheese and mix with a rubber spatula (photo 12).

Finish by adding the whipped cream and gently whisk with a hand whisk (photo 13). Transfer the mouse to a piping bag fitted with Ateco plain pastry tip 806.

Assemble fruit Charlotte

Spread a single spiral (a bit less than ½ inch or 1 cm thick) of the cottage cheese mousse.

Place a frozen red fruit confit disk in the center and fill the remaining space to the edges with the mousse (photo 14).

Add another layer of cheese mousse (a bit less than one inch (2 cm) thick) - it equals two spirals pushed from the pastry bag.

Finish the Charlotte by making waves in a circular pattern on top using a short offset spatula or the back of a spoon (photo 15). Refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours; better overnight.

To serve, remove the mousse cake mold by lifting it. Peel the acetate cake film and discard it.

Decorate the top of the cake with whole red berries and fresh mint leaves (photo 16) and sprinkle with powdered (icing) sugar or cover with a clear glaze. Wrap the Charlotte cake with a pretty ribbon for a final touch if desired.

Pro tip: Alternatively, mix fresh red fruit with raspberry jam or preserves and arrange the fruit mixture on top of the Charlotte.

Expert Tips

1. To make the fruit confit, replace fresh red fruits with frozen ones. As for the decoration, they have excess moisture: choose another way to decorate the cake.
2. To freeze the confit, adjust a mousse cake mold to the required diameter if you do not have the correct size of a round stainless steel cutter. 
3. If you do not have time to freeze the fruit confit disk, let it cool down. While pushing the mousse spiral, lift the mouse around, and set it aside (better in the fridge) for 10 minutes. Then place the cooled confit in the center of the cheese mousse. Refrigerate for 10 minutes again. Finish with the thick layer of the mousse as directed in the recipe. 
4. Pass the farm cottage cheese through a fine sieve for a more homogeneous mousse.
5. Once the mousse is ready, assemble the charlotte relatively quickly since the mousse will begin to set up with time due to included gelatin.
6. Do not worry about the top of the cake: as long as it is even, it is enough to decorate with fresh fruits later.
7. Make-ahead option: make the red fruit confit and freeze it one day in advance. Make and assemble the cake the next day.

Storing and freezing

Store fruit Charlotte cake under a cake dome in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Keep leftover cake in an airtight container refrigerated.

Can you freeze fruit Charlotte? It is not recommended to freeze this cake.

Recipe FAQ

Love Charlotte cakes? Try these next!

• Pear Charlotte Cake
• Charlotte aus Fraises (Strawberry Charlotte Cake)
• Chocolate Charlotte
• Browse all the Cake Recipes

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Recipe card

The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.

The recipe was adapted from C'est pa de la tarte. It was originally published on October 24, 2018. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All the posted pictures are mine.