Week 41: Boston Cream Pie

Boston Cream Pie

If you know anything about Boston Cream Pie, you know it’s not a pie at all, it’s a cake. And, oddly enough, it’s one of the few cakes that I really, really like! When I was a kid, as I might have mentioned before, I didn’t care for birthday cake. My mom would have to agree to some odd requests. There were a few years that I remember having a slice of watermelon with candles in it. One year, we discovered the Pillsbury Bundt Cake mixes. They had a Black Forest and Tunnel of Fudge and, my personal favorite, Boston Cream Pie. I can’t tell you how sad I am that these are no longer available! These were the only cakes that I would eat as a kid. It was probably the pastry cream fillings and the lack of thick frostings that sealed the deal for me.

I really wanted to make a real Boston Cream Pie because it has been years since I have had one. There are a lot of recipes out there for Boston cream poke cakes, cupcakes, bundt cakes, and sheet cakes but I wanted to make a traditional one. Boston cream pie consists of a yellow sponge cake, vanilla pastry cream, and a chocolate glaze. Have I ever mentioned I LOVE PASTRY CREAM! 😉 If you are interested in dessert histories, this one is a funny one on how this cake came to be called a “pie”.

We used our Cook’s Illustrated Baking cookbook again. I realized after the fact that my Mom’s Best Desserts also had a recipe for it so I am going to have to compare the two some day. The recipe we used was called Wicked Good Boston Cream Pie…so, how could it be bad?

For our substitutes we used Allulose for the sugar in the cake but super fine sugar for the pastry cream. We used almond milk instead of regular milk and made our own half-and-half with cream and almond milk. We did not use whole wheat flour since we didn’t want the cake to be dense. For the corn syrup, we used maltitol.

Ingredients

Pastry Cream

• 2 cups half-and-half
• 6 large egg yolks
• ½ cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
• pinch table salt
• ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into four pieces
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Cake

• 1 ½ cups (7 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon table salt
• ¾ cup whole milk
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 1 ½ cups (10 1/2 ounces) sugar

Glaze

• ½ cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine

Instructions

1. For the Pastry Cream: Heat half-and-half in medium saucepan over medium heat until just simmering. Meanwhile, whisk yolks, sugar, and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Add flour to yolk mixture and whisk until incorporated. Remove half-and-half from heat and, whisking constantly, slowly add ½ cup to yolk mixture to temper. Whisking constantly, return tempered yolk mixture to half-and-half in saucepan.
2. Return saucepan to medium heat and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens slightly, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer, whisking constantly, 8 minutes.
3. Increase heat to medium and cook, whisking vigorously, until bubbles burst on surface, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat; whisk in butter and vanilla until butter is melted and incorporated. Strain pastry cream through fine-mesh strainer set over medium bowl. Press lightly greased parchment paper directly on surface and refrigerate until set, at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.
4. For the Cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Heat milk and butter in small saucepan over low heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and cover to keep warm.
5. In stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip eggs and sugar at high speed until light and airy, about 5 minutes. Remove mixer bowl from stand. Add hot milk mixture and whisk by hand until incorporated. Add dry ingredients and whisk until incorporated.
6. Working quickly, divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake until tops are light brown and toothpick inserted in center of cakes comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes.
7. Transfer cakes to wire rack and cool completely in pan, about 2 hours. Run small plastic knife around edge of pans, then invert cakes onto wire rack. Carefully remove parchment, then reinvert cakes.
8. To Assemble: Place one cake round on large plate. Whisk pastry cream briefly, then spoon onto center of cake. Using offset spatula, spread evenly to cake edge. Place second layer on pastry cream, bottom side up, making sure layers line up properly. Press lightly on top of cake to level. Refrigerate cake while preparing glaze.
9. For the Glaze: Bring cream and corn syrup to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Whisk gently until smooth, 30 seconds. Let stand, whisking occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 5 minutes.
10. Pour glaze onto center of cake. Use offset spatula to spread glaze to edge of cake, letting excess drip decoratively down sides. Chill finished cake 3 hours before slicing. Cake may be made up to 24 hours before serving.

Our Experience

We had lot of ingredients to assemble for this one considering it was 3 parts. Unfortunately, Aubrey took on the cake while I worked on the pastry cream…and neither of us took time to get a photo of all the ingredients assembled (nothing new for us these days).

Aubrey assembled the cake as directed.

One of the best purchases I made this year was another mixing bowl for my KitchenAid mixer. We can mix two different things for the same recipe without having to wash the bowl in between.

I was in charge of greasing and flouring the cake pans. They have the parchment rounds as well.

For the pastry cream, the milk needed to be heated and then the eggs tempered in it. We’ve made a few over the course of this year and this one wasn’t much different. It was a little thicker than some of the others.

When making pastry cream, we haven’t figured out how to get “during” pictures. It goes so fast and you are constantly whisking while someone else is slowly pouring the egg mixture into the milk.

We heated the cream and chocolate in the microwave, we just didn’t feel like waiting for another pot of milk to heat up.

What we liked.

This cake was similar to the one I had eaten as a kid and I can still say I like this type of cake. The kids all said they liked it while Logan and Aubrey said they aren’t really fans of pastry cream so they could have done without it. WHAT? Well, I officially disowned them for a few days. I don’t even know who they are with that attitude. 😉

I had a couple pieces, we gave away three, Garrett ate one, and Kip devoured the rest of it. That was at least half of it! As we discovered with our napoleons, Kip loves pastry cream too and he had no problem finishing this one up.

The cake was more dense than the Pillsbury boxed one, but it had a nice texture that could stand up to the pastry cream and not get soggy. It was a nice vanilla cake that would have been good on its own but the addition of the pastry cream and glaze made it a winner. The pastry cream, also vanilla flavored, was thick and creamy. It didn’t “sploosh” out when the cake was cut. I’ll admit, the size of the pastry cream layer had me worried that it was going to be difficult to cut. It was the perfect consistency for this cake and it provided extra moisture to the cake. The chocolate glaze was thick for a glaze but not too sweet. It had a fudgy consistency because it remained soft even after being refrigerated. I might use this glaze for eclairs in the future.

It was a trip down memory lane. It’s weird how eating something can bring back a flood of memories. I think my enjoyment of this cake was as much about the great tasting cake as it was about the childhood days it reminded me of. I would certainly make it again.

What we would change.

I’m not sure that I would change anything. At first, I thought there was way too much pastry cream but after eating the cake, it really was the perfect amount. I don’t know if I would attempt using a whole wheat flour because the cake was already dense and I think the whole wheat would push it over the edge and make it too dense.

If I were going to change anything I might try to change the process. I think we could have heated the milks with the microwave. I could see making the cakes ahead of time and even freezing them and then making the filling and glaze whenever we were ready to serve it.

What we learned.

Well, I learned that something is wrong with my kids…they don’t like pastry cream?! 😉 We have made cakes but this is our first “hot milk sponge cake” which I have recently learned is a “thing”. We have also made pastry cream but this recipe is thicker and might be a good recipe for some of our other uses. The chocolate glaze was unlike any we have made. It remains soft and that makes it a great option for anything that has to be refrigerated. I think it was the corn syrup (maltitol in our case). It also kept it nice and shiny. We might use that tip for future glazes in different flavors.

Until next week, Happy Baking!