Skip to main content
Dessert

Fruit Charlotte

A layered dessert of sponge cake, chocolate and almond creams, topped with whipped cream and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Arrowroot and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 179 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Fruit Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil milk or cream over low heat.

  2. Gradually stir in beaten egg yolks mixed with arrowroot or corn-starch.

  3. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly until smooth.

  4. Divide mixture into two saucepans.

  5. Add chocolate and sugar to one half. Simmer for a few minutes. Cool.

  6. Blanch almonds. Pound with rose-water to make a paste.

  7. Mix almond paste, citron, and powdered sugar into the other half of the cream mixture. Simmer briefly. Cool. Add vanilla.

Assemble the cake

  1. Slice sponge cake crosswise into ½-inch thick slices.

  2. Spread chocolate cream on one slice. Top with another slice. Cover with almond cream.

  3. Repeat until all ingredients are used.

Top and bake

  1. Whip egg whites to stiff peaks. Mix in powdered sugar. Spread over the cake.

  2. Sift powdered sugar on top. Lightly brown in the oven.

  3. Cover with whipped cream.

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. Arrowroot + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Arrowroot + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together242 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a smooth custard when cooked gently.
Arrowroot or corn-starch
Stabilises the custard so it thickens smoothly without graininess.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives it richness.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks to create a light, airy topping that holds its shape.
Sponge cake
Provides the soft, absorbent layers that hold the cream fillings.
Sweet almonds
Ground into a paste that adds nutty flavour and body to the almond cream.

The step that matters

Cook the custard for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Egg yolks and starch thicken as they heat, but overheating or leaving the base unstirred can scramble the eggs or scorch the milk, leaving lumps or a grainy texture.

“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

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes