Mark your calendars, folks…this is my first trifle on Doughmesstic.
Ever.
It won’t be my last.
The first time I ever had a Chocolate Charlotte Russe Cake was in 1991. I know this because it was for my sixteenth birthday, made by the mother of one of my high school girlfriends. I remember it clearly – the buttery lady fingers, the thick chocolate mousse, the whipped cream and chocolate chips. It was unlike any dessert I had ever eaten, and for years, I have always remembered it, despite its strange name.
Chocolate Charlotte Russe Cake.
Though it won’t affect the taste at all, I wanted to provide you a little trivia on the Charlotte, so that both of us know what it is, and maybe, just maybe, it will pop up on Jeopardy one day and we’ll look like geniuses to everyone around us when we chime in correctly.
“What is Chocolate Charlotte Russe Cake, Alex?”
Well, let’s break it down.
A Charlotte is a dessert also known as an ice-box cake, and consists of cake, bread, cookies or ladyfingers that are placed into a mold, then topped with cream, fruit puree, or mousse. it is also the city I am going to this weekend, to take my family to the Great Wolf Lodge for their indoor waterpark, MagiQuest, and Snowland excitement. Can’t wait, if you really want to know the truth.
A Charlotte russe is a dessert invented in France by chef Marie Antoine Carême in the very early 1800s, who named it in honor of his Russian employer Alexander I (russe being the French word for “Russian”). It is a cold dessert of Bavarian cream set in a mold lined with ladyfingers.
A Charlotte Russe Trifle is me being too lazy to line a mold properly, so I put all of the ingredients into a trifle dish.
And there you have it.
Every bit as good as I remember on my birthday, and worth every dirty dish it took to make it, which was practically every dish I own, and some I’d borrowed.. Give it a shot, I think you’ll love it!
Ingredients
- 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup milk
- 6 eggs, separated
- 1 1/2 cups butter
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, divided
- pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups whipped cream, prepared
- 3 packages (36) lady fingers, split
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, melt chocolate over low heat. While it melts, whisk sugar, milk and egg yolks in a medium bowl. Once chocolate is melted, add the sugar/egg mixture. Stir constantly until smooth and thickened, about 7-9 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool completely.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until fluffy, then add 3/4 cup of the confectioners sugar and beat for 2 more minutes.
- Add cooled chocolate mixture to the butter and beat well. Leave in mixing bowl.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whip egg whites and salt to stiff peaks. Gradually add in 3/4 cups confectioners sugar.
- Fold egg white meringue into chocolate mixture, then add vanilla. Place mixture in refrigerator while preparing the trifle.
- Line the bottom and sides of a trifle with lady fingers. Add 1/3 of the chocolate mousse, then layer with more lady fingers. Repeat with another layer of lady fingers and mousse. Add one more layer of ladyfingers, then pipe remaining mousse on to top around the edges. Pipe prepared whipped cream in the center. Top with mini chocolate chips.
I made my Charlotte use using Scharffen Berger chocolate, which I adore. It’s a fantastic quality, and never lets me down. For the price? It’s hard to beat! I love it so much, in fact, that I’ll be a panelist on the Scharffen Berger Twitter Party tonight, along with Matt Bites, My Baking Addiction, and BakeSpace. (I know, right? What an honor to be in that panel!) We’ll be tweeting with Scharffen Berger about their Holiday Recipe Exchange and the Elevate a Classic Dessert Recipe Contest from 7-8 EST, so come on by and chat with us! Our hashtag is #ScharffenBerger…hope to see you there! We’ll randomly select 5 participants at the end of the chat to win 5 Scharffen Berger Chocolate Baking Essentials Gift Baskets – full of our baking bars, chocolate chunks, cocoa powders and more. You know you want that, right??
Now I wouldn’t leave you without a giveaway of my own from Scharffen Berger, would I? Of course not. You know me better than that. So, let’s give some chocolate away!
One lucky reader will win an assortment of Scharffen Berger baking chocolates, cocoa powder, and a tasting sampler, courtesy of SB. Imagine all of the great things you can make once you have it!
All you need to do to win is leave me a comment, letting me know you’d like to win.
- For another entry, follow ScharffenBerger on Twitter. Be sure to leave me a separate comment, letting me know you do.
- For another entry, become a ScharffenBerger Fan on Facebook. Again, leave a separate comment for this entry. Maybe write on their wall, letting them know I sent you? I’d appreciate that a lot!
- For a fourth entry, please share this post on Facebook or Twitter. let’s spread the love with our friends, okay? Karma is good stuff sometimes.
Four entries per person, max. All additional entries will be deleted.
Contest is open until December 12, 11:59pmEST. Prize is courtesy of and shipped by ScharffenBerger. US addresses only, please.
Good luck, kids, and don’t forget that Twitter party tonight!
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I clicked your Facebook share link
hoping Karma works for me
would love to try this line of baking goodies!
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