CHARLOTTE RUSSE

When that picture of a tray of Charlotte Russe* pastries showed up on Facebook, it immediately took me back to the days of my youth. Vividly, I can recall the glowing smile on my mother’s face as she asked the salesperson at the Village Bake Shop, in Linden, New Jersey, to hand me that treat.

Possibly for my mother, although they didn’t go out to buy baked goods, it brought back a memory from her youth. Did my grandmother make that treat at home? From what I was told, she was a marvelous cook and baker, but she passed away when my mother was 19, so I never got to store those memories.

It’s hard to recall if I was offered the sweet Charlotte Russe treat when we frequented the precursor to the Linden shop. That was at Beinstein’s on the Roselle side of St. Georges Avenue, before they opened the “new” bakery down the road on the Linden side of what my mother called “the highway.”

So many warm memories emerge simply from thinking of a trip to the bakery with my mother. It’s a wonder if our children have any such thoughts about their childhood treats. During my childhood summers in the Catskills, my favorite pick at Katz’s Bakery in Liberty was always the black and white cookies.

There’s more about those baked treats in several of my blog posts. For example, see Marble Cake posted on August 8, 2023, at sharonmarkcohen.com, and more about Beinstein’s in Remember Stockings With Seams? posted on July 23, 2024.

Look for another blog, due to post on a future date, entitled, The Waning of the Old Ethnic Bakeries. When my friend Marie asked where I get the ideas for these topics, I replied, honestly, I don’t know, they just come to me. After reviewing all these bakery-themed posts, I’m off to the kitchen to see what I can find for a nosh. I expect your mouth will be watering as you keep scrolling down. Enjoy!

*“History of Charlotte Russe:

“Following information is from the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, by John F. Mariani, 1999

“Charlotte Russe.  A French dessert (supposedly created by Marie-Antonin Careme) made in mold with ladyfingers and Bavarian cream. . . While this confection is known and made in the United States, a simple version consisting of a square of sponge cake topped with whipped cream (sometimes with chocolate sprinkles) and a maraschino cherry was also called a ‘charlotte russe’. . . This was a standard item in eastern cities, particularly among urban Jewish Americans (some of whom pronounce the item ‘charely roose’ or ‘charlotte roosh’), who made it at home or bought it at a pastry shop, where it was set on a frilled cardboard holder whose center would be pushed up as to reveal more cake as the whipped cream was consumed.

“18th Century – The Charlotte Russe Cake is said to have been invented by the French Chef Marie Antoine Careme (1784-1833), who named it in honor of his Russian employer, Czar Alexander I.  The word ‘russe’ means Russian in French.

“Some historians say that the word Charlotte refers to the Czar Alexander’s sister-in-law, Queen Charlotte, Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818), who was the wife of George III, king of Great Britain and Scotland.”

Being a genealogist and family historian, I cannot resist mentioning that we had an older second cousin named Charlotte, z”l, and now a baby cousin Charlotte, from my husband’s clan. It’s a wonder if either of them tried a Charlotte Russe.