Chocolate Charlotte Russe Cake
I’ve got a gift for you today. It rhymes with delicious. You can thank me, and my friends at Safest Choice™ Eggs for it later. Yeah, they sponsored this post, and you are in for a real treat.
So 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.
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!
Chocolate Charlotte Russe Cake Trifle
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.
As you can see from this recipe…it uses a LOT of eggs.
Some people are not a fan of using eggs that may not be fully cooked, or are afraid they aren’t safe, despite new food and safety information. But this trifle was made with truly SAFE Eggs.
Duh – Davidson’s Safest Choice™, Eggs, to be exact.
You’ve seen me post about them before, and you will again…I am a huge fan of Safest Choice.
I have been an ambassador for Safest Choice™ for nearly a year now, as a member of their Darling Dozen. Their eggs are pasteurized in the shell, before you ever get them! They taste the same (they’re eggs, after all), no weird chemicals were added, and they are already SAFE to consume, even before cooking! So…love cookie dough? Love Caesar Salad? These both include uncooked eggs. With Safest Choice, you’re good to go!
What is pasteurization? Pasteurization is a century-old process that destroys pathogens through simple heat, and is well- known for its role in making milk and juices safe to enjoy. To pasteurize a food means to destroy harmful microorganisms (e.g., bacteria and viruses) by applying a precise amount of heat for a specified period of time. This straightforward food safety technique was invented by French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur in 1864. Pasteurization is an all natural process, in that it involves only heat (not chemicals or irradiation). Safest Choice eggs go through a series of warm water baths to eliminate bacteria. It’s that simple!
Visit www.SafeEggs.com/recipes/safest-choice-darling-dozen for more information on the Safest Choice Darling Dozen, or follow Safest Choice on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
About Davidson’s Safest Choice Eggs: 
Founded in 2001, in Lansing, IL, National Pasteurized Eggs is a privately held company that launched the Davidson’s Safest Choice® brand pasteurized shell eggs in 2003. Safest Choice eggs can be found in over 5,000 grocery stores, in thousands of restaurants and through major foodservice distributors in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Safest Choice eggs provide consumers the highest combined standard for quality and safety in shell eggs and the Safest Choice patented, all natural, award-winning egg pasteurization process allows everyone to enjoy all recipes without the risk of Salmonella.
For more information or to find a retailer, visit www.SafeEggs.com.
Disclaimer: I am an ambassador for Safest Choice Eggs, as part of the Darling Dozen. This post is sponsored, but all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
