Charlotte (cake)

The charlotte is known to have existed by the late 18th century. In 1796, The New-York Magazine published a poem by Joel Barlow called "The Hasty-Pudding" which included the following lines: Some have claimed that it was a tribute to Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. An alternative explanation has it derived from the English word charlyt, meaning 'dish of custard filling'. In 1815, Marie-Antoine Carême, one of the most celebrated French chefs, claims to have thought of charlotte à la parisienne "", presumably in 1803, when he opened his own pastry shop. The earliest known English recipe is from the 1808 London edition of Maria Rundell's New System of Domestic Cookery: Cut as many very thin slices of white bread as will cover the bottom and line the sides of a baking dish, but first rub it thick with butter. Put apples, in thin slices, into the dish, in layers, till full, strewing sugar between, and bits of butter. In the mean time, soak as many thin slices of bread as will cover the whole, in warm milk, over which lay a plate, and a weight to keep the bread close on the apples. Bake slowly three hours. To a middling sized dish use half a pound of butter in the whole. In Carême's 1815 , he mentions many varieties of charlotte: ; he mentions as the name used by others for what he called . (''Pomme d'api'' is a variety of apple available in the winter.) ==Types==

There are many variants. The 2015 reference book The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets compares cold charlottes to trifles and icebox (or refrigerator) cakes. BBC Food describes charlottes as "made in a mould lined with sponge fingers or bread slices and filled, then baked or, in the case of cold charlottes, set in the fridge. Apple charlotte is probably the best-known example." Fruit charlottes usually combine a fruit purée or preserve, such as raspberry or pear, with a custard filling or whipped cream. Charlottes are not always made with fruit; some, notably charlotte russe, use custard or Bavarian cream, and a chocolate charlotte is made with layers of chocolate mousse filling. The Algerian charlotte is made with honey, dates, orange rind, and almonds. Charlotte russe or ('Russian') is a cold dessert of Bavarian cream (bavarois, a mixture of cooked custard and whipped cream) set in a mold lined with ladyfingers. It was named as such when it was fashionable to serve food with a Russian name, or in the Russian style (service à la russe). Charlotte royale is made with the same filling as a charlotte russe, but the ladyfingers are replaced by slices of Swiss roll. A simplified version of charlotte russe was a popular dessert or on-the-go treat sold in candy stores and luncheonettes in New York City, during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. It consisted of a paper cup filled with yellow cake and whipped cream topped with half a maraschino cherry. The bottom of the cup is pushed up to eat. The dessert that 19th-century Russians knew as sharlotka (also transliterated charlottka), a baked pudding with layers of brown bread and apple sauce, has since evolved into a simple dish of chopped apples baked in a sweet batter. ==See also==