Mango-matcha charlotte cake


No butter shortage, only money shortage

Here's my take on the Charlotte cake, giving it a delightful Asian twist, using mangoes from #Duterteland and matcha-flavoured sponge cake.

Charlotte cake is made of ladyfingers or sponge and filled with cream or mousse or jelly and top with variety of fruits. The name of the dessert was a tribute to Queen Charlotte. Bread though was the basis for the earliest charlotte recipes, it's a dessert with fruit jelly or preserves and baked over hot coals and eaten warm.


Charlotte cake is more of a summer cake, the abundance of strawberries during summertime makes this cake a popular choice for a simple yet refreshing dessert. But that doesn't mean you can't make it past summer 🤣


My version of Charlotte cake is mostly made of the usual things you'll find in some French pastries. I used créme diplomat because I've got some egg yolks from macaron making and it's pretty easy to make. Créme diplomat is just a mix of pastry cream and whipped cream. Genoise sponge is sturdy enough as a base to hold the cream. The filling is supposedly a mango jelly but I want to try a compote. Compote means a chunky fruit sauce but the very ripe mangoes tend to disintegrates when you cook it thus the smooth compote.  As you can see from the photos, there's a slight dip in the middle of the sliced cake because I forgot to add another layer of cream  on top of the compote before adding the sponge. I used some of the extra créme diplomat to make a mini cake, sponge is from scraps.


Toppings are leftover créme diplomat, homemade green tea macs and fresh cubed mangoes


So how's your Baking mojo nowadays?! 😅


Pastry cream, make this a day ahead

250 grams whole milk (UHT or fresh)
40 (1) grams sugar
some vanilla seeds or 1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks 
10 (2) grams sugar
20 grams cornstarch
1 gram fine sea salt
20 grams butter, softened
4 grams gelatine sheets

* Soak gelatine sheets in cold water for 5-10 minutes. Once softens, squeeze out excess water and set aside.

* Bring milk and sugar into a boil.

* In a mixing bowl, beat yolks and sugar until light and creamy, add in cornstarch and whisk until smooth. Gradually pour in the warm milk mixture, whisking as you pour to prevent eggs from curdling. Pour back mixture back into the pan and bring into a boil while whisking constantly. Let cream boil over medium heat for 2 minutes until thick, turn off heat and add butter; stir until well combined. Add in the softened gelatine and still until completely melted.

* Transfer to a shallow heat-proof bowl and place a plastic wrap directly onto the top of the pastry cream. Let cool at room temperature before putting it in the fridge.


Mango compote, recipe--->>> here

Genoise sponge, recipe adapted from Okashi

115 grams cake flour
4 grams matcha powder, sifted 3 times together with the flour
170 grams (3 large) whole eggs
100 grams caster sugar
15 grams glucose syrup
30 grams butter
45 grams (fresh) whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

* Line a 12-inch square pan with parchment, set aside.

* Preheat oven to 190ºC.

* In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with whisk, add in glucose and sugar, mix well. Place bowl over a saucepan with barely simmering water, stir mixture until sugar is completely dissolved or the temperature has reached 39-40ºC.

* Take bowl off heat and beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and continue beating for 1 minute to even out the batter. Gently fold in the flour flour-matcha mixture.

* Combine the butter, milk and vanilla in a small heat-proof bowl, place bowl in a saucepan until butter is melted.

* Add about 1/4 cup of the egg batter to the warm butter mixture and mix well. Add it back to the remaining batter and fold evenly.

* Pour into the prepared pan, drop the pan gently several times to remove air bubbles.

* Bake for 16 minutes. Take out cake from the oven and immediately remove from the pan. Cover cake with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Once cooled, gently scrape off the brown crust from the top of the cake before cutting.

Créme diplomat

350 grams pastry cream
250 grams whipping cream

* Beat cream until (almost) stiff peaks, chill in the fridge until needed.

* Beat pastry cream until soft, fold in whipped cream. If there are still some lumps, beat mixture over low speed for about 30 seconds until smooth.

* Chill in the fridge until needed.


Cake assembly: See photos below

You'll need a 6-x3inch mousse mould to hold the cake so as 5-inch mould to cut out two 5-inch sponge

* Cut 2.5-inch x 17-inch rectangle to line the sides of the mould. Use the 5-inch mould the cut 2 pieces of round sponge.

* Line the sides of the mould with the rectangle sponge and place 1 round sponge at the bottom. Pipe in some créme diplomat in the middle (leave about 2 cm gap from the top of the sponge) use a small offset spatula to smoothen the top. Pour in some mango compote on top of the cream, top another layer of cream and cover with the remaining round sponge, pressing it down gently. Pipe in more cream along the sides and over the sponge, use a long spatula to smoothen the top. Reserve some créme diplomat for decoration. Chill in the fridge to set for at least 4 hours or overnight before un-moulding the cake.

* Ran a hairdryer or a kitchen torch along the sides of the moulds for few seconds and gently shake to un-mould the cake. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm it up a bit.

* Decorate top with leftover diplomat cream, mango cubes and green tea macarons.




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