Another fun cake this weekend, to thank another wonderful couple of folks who helped us move and … okay I have to admit… excuse to make something sweet and use the flowers I made at the last cake decorating class.

This is my version of the Boston Cream Pie, P keeps harassing me because I just can’t leave a recipe alone, that I always have to mess with it.  But isn’t that the fun of playing in the kitchen?  At any rate, no one complained, though they may have just been polite.

I borrowed this recipe from a couple of places and partly made up my own and here I will share, giving credit so you can see where I got some parts from and giving you information on what was mine.

Pastry Cream (I made the day before)

This comes from the Joy of Baking and is really simple.

• 1/4 Cup sugar
• 3 large egg yolks (or in my case 4 small ones)
• 1/8 Cup Flour
• 3 (scant) Tablespoons Cornstarch
• 1 1/4 Cups Milk
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Mix sugar and egg yolks, and in separate bowl mix the dry ingredients.  In a small saucepan bring the milk to a boil and then, while whisking, pour slowly into the sugar and egg mixture.  Put everything back into the saucepan and whisk constantly while heating up until thick.  Whisk like crazy…. seriously, it will seem lumpy at first but then just take the saucepan off the stove and whisk until smooth.  Lastly add in the vanilla and whisk some more.  Quickly place into a clean container and cover with plastic wrap… have the plastic wrap laying flat against the cream, this will keep it from getting a skin on top.  Place in fridge until ready to use.

Chocolate Whipping Cream (also made the day before)

In order to have the whipping cream nice and stiff and chocolaty, place as much cream as you like (I used about 3 cups) and place in saucepan.  Add in 3 – 4 heaping tablespoons (or as much as you like to taste) and add sugar (no need to use confectioners sugar here as you will dissolve it – so no gritty sugar in the whipped cream later) again to taste.  Then bring the mixture to a boil and whisk until it’s all incorporated.  Set the chocolate cream aside and refrigerate until ready to whip.

When you’re ready to whip this, place your bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for about 10 – 15 minutes until nice and frosty.  This will ensure that your cream will whip really well.  I was also testing out some meringue powder so I added about 2 tablespoons before I whipped it.  This is supposed to help it stay nice and firm if keeping it out of the fridge and the weather is hot.  I have to say that my cream held up nicely.

You can add the meringue powder…or not and whip until done.  Then either frost evenly with a spatula or pipe as I did with the rose tip to make it flowery.

Cake

I had made this cake before and loved it, the texture is good and it’s so much simpler than some others I’ve seen… Thanks Martha!  It comes from Martha Stewart’s recipe though I left out the sugar in the pan.

Grease an 8 inch cake pan and lay a parchment circle at the bottom and butter it once in the pan.  I have to say that the cake popped out of the pan like a charm and didn’t leave even a crumb behind.

• 2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
• 1 1/4 Cups Sugar
• 1 1/4 Cups Cake Flour (she says not the self-rising kind but that was all I had and used it … it was fine.
• 1 1/4 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
• 2 Large Eggs
• 2 Large Egg Yolks
• 3/4 Cups Whole Milk

In a medium bowl mix together all the dry ingredients and at the same time place the eggs and yolks and sugar in a mixer.  Mix until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  In the meantime place the butter and milk into a small saucepan and heat until the butter is melted.  Then slowly add the milk/butter mixture into the egg mixture while the mixer is running at just under medium speed.  Slowly then add the flour mixture until all is incorporated.

Transfer to your pan, bake at 350 degrees until golden brown on top about 35 – 40 minutes… test with a toothpick to ensure it’s done.  Let it cool for about 15 minutes then pop over onto a rack to cool.  Leaving it for a few minutes allows the cake to pull from the pan a bit.  It should just pop out without a trace…  😉

To build the cake/pie first slice the cake in half with a serrated knife then layer the cream between the two cake halves.  I would suggest whisking the pastry cream a bit before doing so to make sure you don’t have any lumps.  Once that is done then you can cover it with the whipping cream.  Decorate as you wish.  This is where my pre-made royal icing flowers came in handy.  Sure they weren’t exactly the right color, and I have to say that the whipped cream roses could have been a bit better, I think they looked a bit odd made out of the chocolate whipping cream.  But I was going for taste here more so than the looks.

And it was yummy if I do say myself!