Boston Cream Pie

Back to the sweets and what better way to do it than with this fantastic Boston Cream Pie Recipe.  The cake is just delicious and with the vanilla filling inside and the chocolate icing on top this dessert is one of my favorite easy cakes.  I am a *terrible* froster.  So this cake was perfect.  Frosting the cake just means pouring chocolate on top... :)

My biggest problem with this cake is it is *not* easy to take pictures of! When you have a cake with a yummy, gooey filling you want to show that.  You want a big thick layer of that delicious vanilla goo to be poking out between each slice of cake.  The problem was when I placed the cake layer on top it smashed the pastry cream so that only a small layer was visible.  The hardest part of this blog for me is the photography and the staging. With a whisk and an apron I feel like a pro; but with a camera and a tripod I often feel like a dunce.  Just because food tastes yummy does not mean it makes a great picture. It takes a lot of work to try and get the food that I made to look pretty enough for other people to want to make.  What was I to do about the pictures for this cake?!

After much thought and a lot of failed attempts I finally came up with this little trick.  By putting a small, thin dessert plate in the middle of the cake I was able to add the pastry cream around the edges and allow the second layer of cake to rest on top of the plate.  This kept the filling from squishy out for the pictures!  Just be sure to remove the little plate before serving and leave some pastry cream aside to fill in the middle.

So please enjoy the photos below for the cream-filled cake staging tutorial photos below!

And... ta-da!  A cake with a lovely layer of vanilla pastry cream.  Now just because it didn't sit as well for pictures doesn't mean this cake has trouble staying together for serving.  I don't want you to be afraid you'll have to have a plate in the middle of your cake at a party!  The cake was perfectly fine without being staged - just I wanted some very close up pictures that featured the ooey-gooeyness of this cream.  You know honestly I was lucky there was any cream left to fill the cake.  I made the cream a day ahead of time and found myself snacking on it more than a couple of times!  Yum!

Boston Cream Pie Recipe

Yellow Cake Recipe

or

1-2-3-4 Cake Recipe

Ingredients
yields 2 cake layers
1 cup milk
2 cups sugar
3 cups cake flour
4 eggs
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla

Directions
1) Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 2 cake pans.  Don't skip the flouring step or you will be unhappy as you are attempt to un-stick a cake from a pan.

2) Cream the butter and sugar until well mixed but not fluffy.  This should only take about 30 seconds to a minute.  Slowly add the eggs in one a time and then the vanilla.

3) Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4) Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir.  Add 1/2 the milk to the mixture and stir.  Add an additional 1/3 of the flour mixture and stir.  The last of the milk, stir.  Finally fold in the last of the flour.  It is important to add each of these a bit at a time like this in order to get the ingredients incorporated fully and to avoid "tunnels" in the cake.

5) Pour the batter into the greased and floured pans.  Use a spatula to spread the batter evenly within the pan.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out with just a few small crumbs.
**The cake is called 1, 2, 3, 4 cake due to the ratio of ingredients.

Pastry Cream Recipe

**for more details check out my original pastry cream recipe here

Ingredients
yields about 2 cups of pastry cream
2 cups whole milk
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
3 1/2 T. cornstarch
1/4 t. salt
2 t. vanilla extract

Directions
1) Heat the milk and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a sauce pan over medium high heat.

2) Whisk together the egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar until the egg yolks become pale in color.  Slowly add in cornstarch whisking the entire time.

3) Temper the egg yolk mixture by slowly pouring 1/4 cup of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks while whisking. Continue whisking and add an additional 1/4 cup of the hot milk.

4) Pour the egg yolk mixture into the sauce pan with the remaining milk and whisk continuously over medium heat until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble. Add in the vanilla and salt, stir, and remove from heat.

5) Pass through a fine mesh strainer or sieve into a glass or plastic bowl and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours but up to 7 days.

Chocolate Ganache Recipe

Ingredients
yields 1 cup ganache
2/3 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup half and half

Directions
1) Heat the half and half until it begins to bubble.  Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips until completely melted.  You can save this in the refrigerator for up to a week.  Just reheat for 15-30 seconds until it reaches desired consistency.

Assembling the Boston Cream Cake...

Ingredients
yields 2 cakes - serves 16-32 depending on how greedy you are! :)
2 yellow cake layers (recipe below)
1 batch pastry cream (or 2 cups vanilla pudding if you don't want to make your own)
1 batch chocolate ganache (recipe below)

Directions
1) Cut each cake in half and fill each with 1/2 of the pastry cream (or vanilla pudding).
2) Pour the chocolate ganache on top of each cake a few minutes before serving.