Charlotte Russe

I am very excited that I finally get to make some pretty things in pastry school! Last week I made a Charlotte Russe torte which is a Bavarian cream torte with lady fingers around the outside. The one pictured below is made with a vanilla chiffon cake, layered with vanilla Bavarian cream and topped with apricot glazed fresh fruit.

The recipes that I have make way more cake than you would want to make at home. So I will just tell you how to construct this torte.

You will need:

• an entremet ring (cake ring) one inch larger than your cake pan
• a cake board larger than your cake ring
• acetate strip
  
• a recipe for 1 chiffon cake
• a recipe for vanilla Bavarian cream
• lady fingers
  

1. Bake and freeze chiffon cake: Make one pan of chiffon cake, and once cooled place in the freezer (the cake will be easier to remove from the pan and cut in half if frozen). Get all of your ingredients ready to make the cream, and before you make it, prepare your cake ring.
   
2. Prepare cake ring: Place the cake ring on a larger cake board. You will need to put a strip of acetate around the inside of the rings and then place your lady fingers inside the ring as well. You will need to layer your torte with chiffon cake and cream, so cut your cake in half equally. Next brush the cake layers with dessert syrup (recipe below). Place one cake layer inside the circle of lady fingers (it is okay if there is room in between the lady fingers and the cake, the cream will just fill in these spots and hold the torte together).
3. Make the cream and assemble the torte: Now you can start to make your cream. Once the cream is done, you must make sure that it is not too runny or it will run out the bottom of the ring. However, because it has gelatin in it, you cannot let it sit around or it will set up quickly. Once it is the right consistency, pour half of the gelatin over the first cake layer. Then take the second cake layer and set it on top, and press it down a little bit into the cream. Pour the remaining cream on top and use a flat edge to make the top even with the cake ring. Freeze overnight.
   
4. Decorate: Before you begin decorating, pull torte out of the freezer and let thaw for about an hour or so. When you are ready to decorate your torte, first put your toppings on before removing the cake ring. Once you are finished with your torte you are now ready to remove it from the cake ring.
5. Remove torte from cake ring: In order to do this we used a torch and a cake turn table to warm the top part of the ring. Do not hold the torch in once spot too long, and do not use the torch too long in general because it will melt your cream. Once you warm it up you should be able to slowly lift the cake ring up and off the torte. Peel off the acetate and place on a serving plate. Slice and serve cold.

Dessert Syrup
(yields enough syrup for about 2 - 10" torte)

• 1/8 cup water
• 1/8 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup Grand Marnier (or desired flavor)

1. Combine sugar and water in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add Grand Marnier. Bring back to a boil and remove from heat.

In the future I will try to cut down my recipes so I can post them here for you.

-amanda