Thursday, September 1, 2011

Boston Cream Pie


Pastry cream.  Pastry cream.  Pastry cream!

Boston Cream Pie (which is really in fact a cake, not a pie) is filled with sweet delicious vanilla and chocolate pastry cream.  I am super jazzed that I have finally made pastry cream.  I think my life has been incomplete without it.  Well maybe that's a slightly dramatic, but really I can't get over how much I love pastry cream.  Pastry cream is a pudding like filling often used between cake layers or to fill cream puffs or donuts.  I have eaten it before, but have never made my own.  Lucky (or perhaps unlucky) for me it is very easy to make.  I could not stop dipping my (of course impeccably clean) fingers into the bowls to get just another taste.  Then I did something I haven't done in years....I licked the bowl.  Well not really.  I used a spatula to scrape all the delicious remnants straight into my mouth.  I didn't let any of this precious magic cream go to waste.  I was little skeptical about using 2 flavors of pastry cream.  I believe traditional Boston Cream Pie only uses vanilla.  But the chocolate and vanilla pastry creams were equally delicious. 


Is it really obvious I adored the pastry cream portion of this dessert?  I guess I need to discuss the other components now.

Let's start with the milk sponge cake.  It had a slightly bizarre texture.  Almost a little tough?  But still moist?  Is that even possible? I don't know.  When you layer all that tasty pastry cream in there it's hard to tell.  I don't think I'd use this sponge cake recipe next time I make Boston Cream Pie (already planning for the next time!).

The cake is topped with rich chocolate ganache-like glaze/frosting.  I thought the topping was pretty delicious and love the contrast of the dark chocolate glaze with the soft luscious pastry cream.  See how I took it back to the pastry cream? 

Overall, this is a pretty special dessert.  Even hubby liked it....well sort of.  Guess what?  He only liked the (vanilla) pastry cream!  He said the cake was "weird" and he's not a chocolate fan.  But like me, he couldn't keep his (not so impeccably clean) fingers out of the vanilla pastry cream.  I am already looking forward to eating this again for breakfast!


Making a Boston Cream Pie is a bit involved with three (well technically four) separate components that have to be made then all assembled.  Consider making the pastry cream the night before you plan to serve the cake.  It needs to chill for 4 hours (or overnight).  You could also chop your chocolate for the chocolate glaze at the same time you chop the chocolate for the chocolate pastry cream and store it in a tupperware for use the next day.  The day you want to serve the Boston Cream Pie bake the sponge cake and once cooled store the layers wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator while you make the glaze.  The cake is easier to slice in layers when it is chilled. 

I halved the recipe and baked the cake in 2 six inch cake pans.  My cake layers were on the thin side because of the size pans I used, but it worked out ok, because the layers of pastry cream were about equal in size to the layers of cake.  Can't get enough of that pastry cream.

Ok, this is ridiculous.  I have used the words "pastry cream" 20 times in this post thus far.  I will consider seeking help.  Right after I think of other ways to incorporate pastry cream into my life...


Boston Cream Pie marks recipe number 5 with Club: Baked.  You see, a group of food bloggers are baking our way through Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.  So far the recipes have been pretty darn impressive.  If you'd like to join our baking adventure head over to the Club: Baked site and get in touch with Karen.  It's a ton of fun, a great way to learn new things and meet some great people.  To see how the other bakers of Club: Baked did with their Boston Cream Pies, click here.  At a minimum, I am pretty certain your life would be enhanced by a little pastry cream.  ;)
     

11 comments:

  1. I agree that the pastry cream was delicious. And that the cake was a little weird. Your pics look so good! I didn't take many this time around since I was such a mess baking this. Love the pastry cream though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is decadence defined, yum!! For some reason I always struggle when I try to make pastry cream. Either I undercook and it's too thin, or I overcook and it's curdled. One of these days I'll figure it out :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ugh Gloria! Why does everything you do have to be so dang beautiful! ahah Your cake looks AMAZING!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your cake is gorgeous! I agree about the weird texture of the cake, but my husband and I both thought it was less noticeable after the cake was refrigerated. I love that you used "pastry cream" so many times in one post! Do you watch Project Runway? One week they kept saying "wee-wee pads" over and over, and another week they said "pop color" about a million times. You and Heidi Klum are like twins!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have yet to make pastry cream. But I think I better learn--quick! Beautiful dessert.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your cake looks beautiful!! And I totally agree with you about the pastry cream.......divine!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your cake and your pictures look great! I thought the ganche was great too, but wasn't so sure about the cake.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The cake looks fabulous, Gloria! Kudos on successful pastry cream; I feel like mine always turns out not-quite-right. Have a great holiday weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Who cares about anything else when you have pastry cream! Yours looks amazing. I'm behind schedule, but can't wait to make this one!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful job as always BF. You were good to make the custard filling thick which I need to do next time. Very pretty pics.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Really beautiful! I'm in the middle of making this & just had to find a photo! My cakes are so flat I think I need to make 2 more - there is no way to cut them in half horizontally!

    ReplyDelete