This is my twist on the Raspberry Charlotte recipe from Cooks Illustrated. Basically the cake is a sponge cake with cream/mousse filling. Instead of raspberry, I used my favorite berry: salmonberry. I used frozen salmonberries I had in the freezer and my salmonberry jam for the swirl. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as written. It was divine. The cream filling was perfectly light, neither too rich nor too sweet.
My one quibble was the cake was not quite up to my aesthetic standards. Since the assembled sponge cake was smaller than my springform pan, I had to improvise a foil ring to hold the assembled sponge together. As a result the filling edges are not smooth. Next time I may try whipping the eggs for the sponge longer to get more volume. I suspect part of the issue was the sponge did not rise enough.
Despite the many steps (and many dishes) I plan to make this again. It is definitely worth the effort!
I totally get what you’re saying about the look, I know what you were going for. We’ve been watching a lot of British baking and have seen people use an acetate ring taped together to get that perfect edge.
Only pros really care that much about those details though. The rest of us only want to EAT the cake! I’d eat that, I think it looks delicious
@endymion and @Magpie, I think I can safely blame Cooks Illustrated for my pickiness in cake presentation. I spent a lot of time pouring over the magazine growing up and I absorbed some of their exacting standards
