Bavarois
Bavarois is the classic dessert cream: crème anglaise stabilised with gelatine and lightened with whipped cream. Historically it predates the modern mousse and remains its direct ancestor.
The technique turns on a temperature window. Gelatine is dissolved in the hot anglaise, then the mass is cooled to around 30 °C — the point where it begins to thicken but still flows. That is when the whipped cream goes in: earlier and it melts, later and the gelatine sets in lumps.
What distinguishes bavarois from a mousse is the obligatory custard base and, generally, a denser texture. It is poured into moulds, left to set, and served on its own or used as a layer in cakes.