Individual strawberry charlotte cake are easily prepared in a glass and still look great as well.
I show you how to make the quickest and easiest charlotte dessert in my recipe further below.
What is Charlotte?
Charlotte is a French cake dessert made with lady finger cookies.
Countless charlotte variations exist and have been emerging, some are prepared with layers and are sometimes described as trifles as well.
The most common charlottes are lined out with ladyfingers dipped in alcohol or in syrup for an alcohol-free Charlotte.
A cream based filling with fresh fruits and layers is common as well and most Charlottes are no-bake summer desserts.
Individual Charlotte Cake Ingredients
Paul loves all his Charlottes and this is why we got the idea to create charlottes which can be prepared easily in a whiskey type of glass.
The effort is less and the result is a lovely portion sized summertime dessert prepared within minutes.
Strawberry
Use Fresh Strawberries cut into half or quarters.
I add about 2-3 Strawberries, depending on the size, to each individual charlotte glass.
That way you keep the flavors balanced with the other ingredients.
Mascarpone
Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese, commonly used in desserts and cakes in Europe.
It has a thick consistency and a neutral taste.
You can make your own mascarpone cheese at home or most supermarkets sell mascarpone cheese next to Ricotta and regular Cream Cheese.
Otherwise you may substitute mascarpone too with thick cream cheese.
Jogurt
Pick a plain yogurt of your choice.
You can use regular stirred yogurt or greek yogurt, whichever you prefer.
Liquer or Syrup
You can choose to make boozy individual charlottes by using a flavored liqueur of your choice.
I love to use fruit or nut flavored liqueurs such as strawberry, hazelnut and campari liqueur.
For nonalcoholic, kid-friendly charlottes use fruit, nut or herb flavored syrups.
For syrups, I usually tend to use Monin style syrups (which come in all kinds of flavors) or homemade syrups.
Sugar
Please adjust the sugar quantity as it depends if you are going to use syrup or liqueur in your charlottes.
If you use syrup, decrease the sugar quantity by half.
Taste test and adjust the sugar to your needs.
Lady Fingers
Lady Finger cookies (or spelled ladyfinger) are Italian dried sponge cookies in elongated finger shape.
Those cookies can suck in syrups or liqueur and are the backbone of this recipe.
There is no real alternative to these cookies, so try to prepare your fruit charlotte recipe with ladyfingers.
How to make easily individual charlotte cakes?
Because this is the easiest charlotte cake recipe in existence, you won’t need a special cake pan for it.
Just use classic whiskey glasses to serve up your individual strawberry charlottes.
Step 1
Mash half quantity of your strawberries to a smooth sauce like consistency.
Mix the mascarpone with the yogurt, sugar and strawberry mash and keep aside.
Step 2
Break your ladyfinger cookies into two and dip them each in the syrup or liqueur so that they suck in.
Line out your whiskey glass with the soaked in ladyfinger cookies. I use about 2 1/2 lady finger cookies per glass.
Step 3
Pour some of the mascarpone mixtures over the ladyfingers in the glass and add some whole cut strawberries over the mascarpone layer.
Fill up each glass with the remaining mascarpone mix and decorate with strawberries.
Store in the fridge and serve cooled.
More French cake desserts
Dear Reader, do you prefer a boozy Charlotte or the alcohol-free version?
Individual Strawberry Charlotte Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 22.9 ounces Strawberries *see Notes
- 8.8 ounces Mascarpone
- 17.6 ounces Yogurt
- ½ cup Sugar *see Notes
- 8.5 ounces Liqueur or Syrup *see Notes
- 32 piece Ladyfingers
Instructions
- Wash your strawberries well and create the two batches as described in the recipe notes below. Mash the first batch of strawberries to a smooth consistency. Cut the second batch of strawberries into halves or quarters and keep aside.
- In a bowl mix together the mascarpone, yogurt, strawberry mash and sugar.
- Break all the lady finger cookies into two. Pour the liqueur OR syrup into a large bowl or soup plate and dip the ladyfinger halves into it so that the soak up the liqueur or syrup.
- Keep your whiskey glass ready and place the soaked up ladyfinger halves into the glass. Per glass I used 5 halves with 4 at the corners and one at the bottom.
- Spoon in some of the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfinger cookies into the glass jar to create a layer.
- Add the cut strawberry over the mascarpone layer.
- Fill up with another layer of mascarpone mixture and finish by decorating with another strawberry layer on top. I use about 2 1/2 cut strawberries per glass.
- Keep the individual charlottes in the fridge to cool.
- Serve cooled as a dessert and decorate with a mint leave you like.
Notes
- The total amount of 22.9 ounces/ 650 grams strawberries is separated into two batches. Batch #1 = 8.8 ounces/250 grams strawberries that are turned into a mash. Batch #2 = 14.1 ounces/400 grams/~20 strawberries that are cut into half or quarters and used in-between layers and as a deco of the charlottes.
- The sugar will need to be adjusted if you intend to prepare non-alcoholic charlottes made with syrup. Taste test.
- Prepare boozy charlotte with fruit or nut liqueurs of your choice OR kid friendly non-alcoholic charlotte with fruit or nut syrups.
Brandy O'Neill says
Such a delicious and fun dessert!
Renee Goerger says
I need portion control on these or I would over-indulge, for sure. Great recipe!