Wait…a Russian charlotte has a Bavarian cream filling?

That’s right, and it was invented by a Frenchman. At least, so it’s said, by Antonin Carême himself. So the story goes, Carême created his own Charlotte after seeing the baked version in England, where he worked for a time starting in 1815. On his return to Paris he produced an unbaked version he called Charlotte à la Parisienne. But that shortly changed when he accepted a position on the staff of Tsar Alexander and relocated to St. Petersburg, and it’s been Charlotte Russe ever since.

Is it true? Who knows? But it makes for a good story.