Charlotte Royale: a celebration cake fit for a king

The big bank holiday weekend is about to begin. You’ve made that spinach and broad bean quiche. The bunting’s ready for your street party. You’ve crafted a coronation drinking game. But there’s something missing, isn’t there? An itch that just needs to be scratched. Where’s the pizazz? Where’s the cake? As the oft-misattributed quote goes: a party without cake is just a meeting. I know, I know: a quiche can be fun, but is it celebratory?

No, what we need is a good old over-the-top, lily-gilded showstopper of a cake, that you can cut into with appropriate levels of pomp and circumstance. And, boy, do I have the pudding for you. It’s hard to think of a more appropriate pudding to celebrate the coronation of a King called Charles than a Charlotte Royale.

A Charlotte Royale is a fancy (and slightly ridiculous) version of the already-quite-fancy Charlotte Russe. In both puddings, a bavarois – a custard set with gelatine, and then loosened with whipped cream – is surrounded by a light sponge. A Charlotte Russe has a ring of ladyfingers circling the creamy filling, while a Charlotte Royale uses a jam-filled Swiss roll, and is set inside a round mould bowl, before being turned out upside down, so that its dome is on top. Really, it’s a wibbly custard in a sponge frame; a trifle that you can cut into slices and serve like a cake.

A Charlotte pudding was originally fruit (usually apple) purée moulded and baked inside buttered slices of bread. But the cold, cream-based version originated at the beginning of the 19th century and came from the French chef Antonin Carême. Carême was a chef to the stars (and the Tsars), cooking for Tsar Alexander and George IV when he was Prince Regent, and there is suggestion that the first Charlotte Royale was made for Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III.