Eric Lanlard's winter fruits and madeleines charlotte cake recipe
Light and fluffy strawberry mousse topped with delicious winter fruit, all held beautifully in place with madeleines, this indulgent dessert is perfect for dinner parties or a quiet night in. Using buttery madeleines instead of the usual sponge fingers gives this dessert a traditional French twist and is guaranteed to impress your friends and family. If you want to make your own madeleines, we have a recipe for that too!
This recipe requires three hours of setting time, and you'll need a 22cm springform tin plus baking paper.
Ingredients
For the syrup- 100 ml water
- 100 g golden caster sugar
- 100 g strawberries
- 300 g strawberries
- 100 g golden caster sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 300 ml whipping cream
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 5 gelatine leaves
- 20 store-bought madeleines
- 250 g mixed winter fruits
Details
- Cuisine: French
- Recipe Type: Cake
- Difficulty: Medium
- Preparation Time: 40 mins
- Cooking Time: 8 mins
- Serves: 8
Step-by-step
- To make the syrup: in a saucepan, mix the sugar and water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Leave to cool.
- Wash 100g of strawberries, remove the stems and liquidise in a food processor to make a coulis. Pass the coulis through a fine sieve to collect all the seeds.
- When the sugar syrup is cool, mix with the coulis and put to one side.
- To make the mousse: wash the strawberries and remove their stems. Heat the strawberries in a small saucepan with 50g of golden caster sugar to create a purée.
- Cover the gelatine leaves with cold water in a separate bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk 4 egg yolks with the remaining 50g of golden caster sugar.
- Pour the hot strawberry purée on to the yolk and sugar mixture and whisk continuously. Put the strawberry purée, yolk and sugar mixture back in to a saucepan and heat whilst continually mixing until the purée thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
- Drain the gelatine and add it to the hot strawberry puree. Put it to one side to cool. Use an electric hand whisk to whip 300ml of cream in to soft peaks, adding the vanilla bean paste half way through. When the strawberry puree is cold, fold in the whipped cream in two stages to create a smooth and creamy mousse.
- To build the cake: line a 22cm in diameter springform tin with baking paper. Cut the madeleines in half length ways and line the tin with the curved sides against the wall of the tin. Fill the bottom of the tin with the other madeleines halves – cut them to fit if need be.
- Using a pastry brush, paint themadeleines with the syrup made at the very beginning. Using a ladle cover the madeleines with the mousse. Repeat the process – add madeleines, paint with syrup and add mousse. Make sure you leave a small gap between the final layer of mousse and the top of the madeleines.
- Place the cake in the fridge to set for at least 3 hours. When set, gently remove the tin and put on a serving plate or cake stand. Decorate with the mixed winter fruits and enjoy!
This recipe was devised by Eric Lanlard for Bonne Maman
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