Bavarian cream or Crème bavaroise or simply Bavarois is a classic dessert, a Swiss invention according to the French, but one that was included in the repertory of Marie-Antoine Carême, who is sometimes credited with it. It was named in the early nineteenth century for Bavaria or, perhaps more likely in the history of haute cuisine, for a particularly distinguished visiting Bavarian, such as a Wittelsbach. Escoffier declared that Bavarois would be more properly Moscovite, owing to its preparation, in the days before mechanical refrigeration, by being made in a “hermetically-sealed” mold that was plunged into salted crushed ice to set— hence “Muscovite”. At the twenty-first century dinner table, one can scarcely imagine the impression made in the mid-nineteenth century by an unmolded and flattened Bavarian cream presented at a summertime dinner party. Bavarian cream is similar to flour- or cornstarch-thickened crème pâtissière but thickened with gelatin instead and flavoured with liqueu