Brane Royale

« Charlotte Royale, a.k.a. Brain Cake. »

It was a busy weekend of not staying indoors and scanning photos so it'll be a few more days before I catch up with the pile of photos that need scanning. A week or so ago I saw a cake in the Finnish food pool on Flickr that I had seen pictures of before but didn't know what it was called which prompted an almost pathologically obsessive search for what the cake's name was. Many cookbooks and web searches with google later I came to realize that, rather curiously, what Finns call this cake is not what the rest of the world calls this cake. The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef defines charlottes rather succinctly:

The two types of charlotte (hot and cold) share two characteristics: the bottom and sides of the charlotte molds are always lined before the filling is added and, once the filling has set, the desserts are removed from the mold before they are served. In the case of the well-known Charlotte Royale and Charlotte Russe, the molds are lined with jellyrolls and ladyfingers, respectively. In other recipes, the molds are lined with sponge cake, meringue products, buttered bread, or thinly sliced fruit. Charlottes are made in individual servings or in forms that serve up to ten people. The first recognized chilled charlotte was the Charlotte Russe, which was invented by Antonin Carême at the beginning of the nineteenth century and was derived from the original classic, warm apple charlotte. (Carême originally named his creations charlotte á la parisienne, but this name was changed during the Second Empire, when Russian dishes became very fashionable.)

Another book, Rare Bits, by Patricia Bunning Stevens discusses the history behind Carême's cold charlottes.

Chance led the child to a humble cookshop, and by the time he was fifteen Carême had entered the service of Bailly, a celebrated pâtissier. Here he came to the attention of Talleyrand, a noted gourmet as well as one of Napoleon's chief ministers. Soon he was working in Talleyrand's own kitchens and then was made head chef. Carême taught himself to read and write; eventually he would write and illustrate seven books, five on cooking and two on architecture.

Carême was a restless man, and all of Europe vied for his services. Before retiring to complete his writings, he would supervise the huge kitchens of the Prince Regent of Great Britain (later George IV), Tsar Alexander I of Russia, the court of Vienna, the British embassy at Paris, and the Baron de Rothschild at his country estate. Yet few of Carême's dishes remain in the repertory today. Styles change, and his was a very elaborate, complicated cuisine. One exception is the Charlotte Russe.

Carême began by experimenting with English Charlottes, seeing ways, as he did with so many dishes, to make them more appealing. First he turned the Charlotte into a cold dish, a pastry shell filled with pureed applesauce; then he went on to create a totally new dessert, which he called Charlotte á la parisienne. The pastry shell had been replaced by sponge fingers, and the filling was now a rich Bavarian cream, a mixture of egg custard, gelatin, and whipped cream with varied flavorings. Carême served his new marvel to Louis XVIII, the reinstated Bourbon king, at a banquet for twelve hundred at the Louvre in 1815; for reasons now unclear the name was changed to Charlotte Russe during the Second Empire.

So my confusion began when I looked for a recipe for Charlotte Russe in a number of cookbooks, there was a picture of a real Charlotte Russe with ladyfingers instead of the rather strange looking jelly roll dome. In the few Finnish cookbooks that had a recipe for Charlotte Russe, none of them had a picture but the recipes called for a jelly roll and something other than a bavarian cream filling. After digging around with google for a while it became rather evident that the only Charlotte Russe recipes with the spiral jelly roll outer layer were Finnish. Now, pedantry aside, the point of having a name for an object is communicating an idea or a concept effectively as simply making up some nonsense words would otherwise serve about as well if there wasn't some continuity in our collective use of vocabulary. I find Finland's use of Charlotte Russe for what is a Charlotte Royale elsewhere on the planet very curious and would love to know how it came to be so. My theory is that the Charlotte Russe entered Finland from Russia and changed rather quickly from the ladyfingers to the jelly roll slices since ladyfingers likely weren't a familiar food and the jelly roll was, and remains still, very popular as well as changing the bavarian or moscovite custard to jellied cream with a bit of sugar (in older Finnish recipes). In spite of the crust and filling substitutions, the name remains unchanged and thus the curious anomaly of only the Nordic countries, as far as I can tell, calling this cake by the wrong name.

The cake, no matter which name you use, is not terribly challenging to make and has the added appeal of closely resembling a brain with the spirals on the outside and the gelatinous mass on the inside. Admittedly, I've never tasted brain, human or otherwise, but I suspect that this is as tasty as it gets. I made two of them since I wasn't happy with the first cake as I let the sponge cake get a bit too brown which didn't harm the taste of the cake but I didn't quite like the look of it. I made the second cake's sponge with a jelly roll sponge recipe and baked it only until it became slightly brown on top. This sponge was far easier to roll, was lighter tasting and it looked more attractive on the finished cake. I used a whipped rahka and cranberry purée for the filling which tasted terrific, but if you want nice, perfectly round spirals of sponge cake, then leave off the cream filling and just use a thin layer of jam. If you choose to use just the jam, you may also need to make two jam rolls depending on how large your mold is and/or how thinly you slice it.

The bavarian cream filling leaves a bit of room for being creative as well. I added a bit of cranberry purée to 1/3 of the mixture to create a stripe in the middle of the cake for a bit of colour and variation. Apricot jam in the jelly roll and fruit in the bavarian cream seem to be traditional, but you can use any fruit you like as the brain cake nazis won't be waiting outside your door if you don't use apricots. I think a lakka/cloudberry variation would be terrific and have the same range of colour as apricots. Bavarian creams are a lot easier to make than most are led to believe, but you must give it your full attention while it is cooking which is why the jelly roll[s] and the mold are prepared first since once the cream is chilled, it needs to be poured into the mold and allowed to set overnight in the refrigerator. I don't even much like bavarian cream and I love the Charlotte Royale, so give it a try.

Charlotte Russe / Charlotte Royale / Aivokakku / Brain Cake

makes: 1 cake with ~10-12 servings
time: about 90 mins prep but needs to set overnight
special tools: 2,5-3 L round bowl or springform pan, jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with sides), fine sieve

Steps:

1. Make sponge cake
2. Make jelly roll and chill
3. Prepare bowl or springform with butter and jelly roll slices
4. Make custard and chill
5. Prepare whipped cream
6. Fold custard and cream together and pour into bowl
7. Top with jelly roll slices
8. Chill overnight

Jelly roll

• 1/3 cup (33 grams) sifted cake flour
• 3 tablespoons (23 grams) unsifted cornstarch (corn flour)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) plus 1 tablespoon (13 grams) granulated white sugar
• 1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• fruit jam of your choice for filling

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) and place oven rack in the middle of the oven. Grease a 17 inch (43 cm) x 12 inch (30 cm) jelly roll pan, line with parchment, and then grease the parchment paper. Set aside.
2. While eggs are still cold separate two of the eggs, placing the yolks in one large mixing bowl and the whites in another bowl. To the two yolks, add the additional yolk, and the two remaining eggs. Cover the two bowls with plastic wrap and allow the eggs to come to room temperature before using (about 30 minutes).
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl whisk together the sifted cake flour and cornstarch. Set aside.
4. Once the eggs are at room temperature, place the egg yolks, along with 1/2 cup (100 grams) of granulated white sugar, in your electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed for five minutes, or until thick, pale, and fluffy. (When you slowly raise the beaters the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons.) At this point beat in the vanilla extract.
5. Sift half the flour mixture over the egg yolk mixture and fold in gently with a rubber spatula, just until the flour is incorporated. Sift the remaining flour mixture into the batter and fold in.
6. In a clean mixing bowl, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Sprinkle in the remaining one tablespoon (13 grams) granulated white sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, and then add the rest of the whites folding just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, evenly spreading the cake batter with an offset spatula.
7. Bake for 7 minutes or until golden brown. A toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean and the cake, when lightly pressed, will spring back.
8. Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven invert the sponge cake onto a clean dish towel that has been sprinkled with confectioners sugar. Carefully remove the parchment paper, sprinkle lightly with confectioners sugar, and roll up the sponge, with the towel, while it is still hot and pliable. Place on a wire rack to cool. (If the parchment paper sticks to the cake, lightly brush the back of the paper with a little warm water, allow to stand for a few moments, then peel the paper from the cake.) When ready to fill, unroll the sponge, spread with the filling, and re-roll. Transfer to a serving platter, cover, and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. (You can serve this cake immediately but chilling it for a few hours first sets the filling and makes it easier to slice.) Just before serving, dust with confectioners sugar. Cut the cake into slices using a serrated knife.
9. Butter bowl, mold or springform pan and place ~2cm slices of jelly roll around the sides, fitting them tightly together so that there are no spaces for the custard to seep through. Reserve some slices for placing on top of the bavarian cream which will be the bottom of the cake when removed from the mold. Refrigerate until you are ready to fill the mold.

Bavarian Cream:

makes: about 2 L
source: Larousse Gastronomique

custard

• 15-20g, 8 sheets or 2-3 envelopes gelatine
• 6 dl or 2.5 cups whole milk
• 1 vanilla pod or 2 tablespoons real vanilla sugar
• 8 egg yolks
• 100g or 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• pinch of salt

whipped cream

• 3,5 dl or 1.5 cups whipping cream, very cold
• 0,75 dl or 1/3 cup whole milk, very cold
• 50g or 1/4 cup superfine sugar
• fresh berries or purée (optional)
• 2 tablespoons liqueur (optional)

1. Soak gelatine in 3 tablespoons cold water (or a shallow bowl of water if using sheets).
2. Whisk together egg yolks, superfine sugar and salt until smooth. Heat milk with vanilla over a medium heat. Pour yolk mixture into a fine mesh sieve and strain it into the milk while stirring constantly. When the mixture is hot to the touch, stir in gelatin (squeeze water from sheets).
3. Stir continuously with whisk over a gentle heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. The mixture must NOT boil. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool, then refrigerate until the custard is cold and just beginning to thicken. (Note: some recipes suggest pouring the hot mixture into a bowl resting on ice to hurry the cooling process.)
4. While the custard is cooling, whip together the cream and milk until it just starts to thicken and add superfine sugar. Continue whipping to soft peaks. Fold in fruit, purée and/or liqueur if using. (You could substitute rahka or a firm yogurt in place of the cream, but with 8 egg yolks in the custard it's really well beyond the point of trying to cut fat or cholesterol. :)
5. Fold cream together with the cooled, but not set, custard. (If the custard has cooled and set a bit too fast, use your mixer to make it creamy before blending it with the whipped cream.)
6. Pour into the prepared dish, top with slices of jelly roll and chill overnight.
7. To unmold, place bowl/mold into warm water briefly, cover with serving plate and invert. Tap gently and ease the bowl/mold off of the cake. Add whipped cream and fruit as garnish if you like. A fruit purée makes for a nice companion as well.