Skip to main content
Dessert

Strawberry Charlotte

A chilled custard dessert layered with sponge cake, strawberries, and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Strawberry Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine milk, egg yolks, and sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Cook until thickened, then flavor to taste.

Layer the dessert

  1. Line a glass fruit dish with sponge cake slices dipped in sweet cream.

  2. Layer sweetened ripe strawberries on top of the sponge cake.

  3. Add another layer of cake and strawberries.

  4. Once the custard is cold, pour it over the layered cake and strawberries.

Top and decorate

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding 1 tablespoon of sugar for each egg white.

  2. Spread the whipped egg whites over the top.

  3. Decorate with the largest strawberries set aside earlier.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Set with gentle heat to thicken the custard into a smooth, rich body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens into a soft set.
Sponge cake
Gives the dessert its structure, soaking up cream and custard around the fruit.
Ripe strawberries
Add fresh fruit flavor and a touch of acidity that balances the sweet custard.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air for a light, airy topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard. The custard must be cooked gently and stirred until it thickens. Egg yolks set with heat, and if they get too hot they curdle into lumps. A smooth, properly thickened custard is what holds the layers together.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes