Make Your Own Charlotte Royale

Before you start with the batter, draw the sponge strips on an A3 sheet: each strip measures 22 cm long × 6 cm wide — this gives you exactly 3 strips on one A3 sheet. Also draw a rectangle for the base sponge.

One sheet is enough for all 10 charlottes: place it as a template under the baking paper, pipe the strips and simply slide it along for the next round.

Tip: it's better to draw slightly larger than too small — the sponge is trimmed again after baking.

Whip the egg yolk with 130 g sugar using the hand mixer until nicely pale and creamy — the mixture should visibly lighten and gain volume.

In a separate, grease-free bowl, whip the egg white with the remaining 130 g sugar to a firm, glossy meringue.

Now gently fold half of the egg white into the egg yolk mixture — from bottom to top, so the air is preserved. Then sift in the flour and fold it in carefully as well. Finally, add the remaining egg white and fold in gently again until everything is homogeneous.

Fill the mixture into a piping bag with a round piping nozzle Ø 8 mm.

Place the baking paper over your template. Now pipe the strips with back-and-forth movements (zigzag) along the 6 cm width, from top to bottom. Repeat this for all 10 strips. Also pipe a flat rectangle for the bases and smooth it out with a spreading palette.

Bake everything at 230 °C fan for 5–7 minutes, until the sponge is lightly golden.

Immediately after removing, sprinkle generously with sugar. Place a new sheet of baking paper on top and turn the sponge over — the sugar prevents the hot sponge from sticking to the paper and getting damaged. Leave to cool.

Heat 100 ml whole milk together with 20 g sugar and the vanilla in a small pot. Meanwhile, stir the vanilla cream powder with the cold 20 ml milk until smooth, so no lumps form.

As soon as the milk starts to simmer, stir a small part of it into the powder mixture, then pour everything back into the pot and bring to a boil while stirring constantly, until the cream thickens. Transfer to a bowl, cover with cling film directly on the surface and leave to cool completely in the fridge.

Once the cream is cold: whip 65 g full cream until stiff. Briefly loosen the vanilla cream with the whisk — this prevents lumps — and then gently fold in the cream.

Soak the 2 leaves of gelatine in cold water for approx. 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir the quark until smooth with sugar, lemon juice, salt and vanilla.

Squeeze the soaked gelatine well and melt it in a small pot over low heat. Immediately stir the liquid gelatine into the quark mixture.

Whip the full cream until stiff and fold it into the quark mixture in 3 portions — always from bottom to top, so the cream stays nice and airy.

Cut the cake insert strips to 18 cm length and place one in each of the round patisserie molds — this way the charlotte will come out cleanly later.

Now trim the cooled sponge strips: shorten the width from 6 cm to 5 cm, cut the length to 18 cm (cut off approx. 2 cm at the top and bottom).

Form each strip into a circle and set it into the mold.

Use the round cookie cutter to cut 10 circles from the base sponge and place one on the bottom of each charlotte.

Fill each of the creams into a piping bag. Now layer per charlotte:

15 g quark cream as a base
approx. 10 g berries (fresh or frozen)
10 g quark cream on top

A beautiful swirl of vanilla cream with the rosette nozzle Ø 18 mm as the crowning finish.

Place the filled charlottes in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Only when the creams have properly set will the charlottes keep their shape when removed.

Dust the finished charlottes generously with icing sugar and decorate them to your heart's content with fresh berries, physalis and other seasonal fruit.