Has anyone been following Master Chef USA? My husband and I watch it religously and while I completely disagree with the Season 5 winner, as with other past seasons as well, I’m loving the addition of SO many pressure test challenges focused on Baking and dessert. The Boston Cream Pie was an inspiration from Master Chef. I’ve actually never tasted this cake, surprisingly having lived in Massachusetts I never got around to trying it – SHAMEFUL. The closest to Boston Cream Pies I had are the classic imitations at Doughnut outlets or Cupcake outlets. That really doesn’t justify I know, but who can resist anything filled with some well made custard? Right?
For those who are new to this lovely national dessert of Boston, the Boston Cream Pie is actually a cake and far from a pie. A sponge or butter cake sandwiched together with custard filling and topped with rich Chocolate Ganache.
This isn’t an easy cake to make. So if you’re looking for something simple to make, shut this page right now and move on to greener pastures. The cake needs to be light and spongy – I used the butter cake recipe, the custard needs to be thick and set, just like frosting and the ganache needs to be rich. I had a lot of trouble with the custard. I made one batch which turned out perfect once it was set, but I thought it was actually too thick. So I made another batch and that didn’t end up setting and was too runny, so you’ll see below a mix of set and runny custard sandwiching the cake. I also didn’t realise, I would have much rather had a thick layer of custard in the middle as opposed to the thinner version that I ended up having because I simply ran out of it. Make the custard in advance so you can let it rest overnight in the fridge to thicken.
I didn’t coat the Ganache all around the cake as I wanted it to be in it’s purest classic form which is Ganache just at the top, it might be nice to have chocolate all around. More chocolate can never be a bad thing 🙂 The Ganache turned out perfect, there was some left over and I used it for filling Sunday morning Crepes for my daughters.
Ingredients:
Custard:
750ml Milk
1/2 C cornflour
5tsp flour
3/4 C Sugar
1/3 C Flour
9 egg yolks
3 tsp vanilla extract
Ganache:
300g chocolate (dark or Milk)
Directions:
- For the custard, heat milk in saucepan and add vanilla extract and bring to boil
- While the milk is heating, separate the egg yolks and mix in the remaining ingredients until it becomes a thick paste
- Add the hot milk into the mixture and whisk quickly until the everything is combined well and pour back into the saucepan
- Turn the heat down to medium and keep stiring until the mixture starts to thicken. This should take about 5 mins, so set the timer if you need to and keep whisking
- Ensure the heat is on medium and don’t get hasty and turn it up, the eggs will scramble (this happened with my first batch). If the eggs do start to scramble take off heat immediately and whisk like crazy until all is smooth
- Once cooked, pour into a bowl cover with clingfilm to prevent any custard skin from forming and let it set overnight
- Â For the Ganache, chop the chocolate and place in a heat proof bowl and set aside. Heat the double cream in a saucepan and let it come to boiling point. Pour over chocolate and stir together until all the chocolate has melted and it looks thick and glossy
- To assemble, fill a piping bag with the thick custard with Wilton Tip #2. Place one layer of the cake and start piping from the outside in. Once the custard has been filled, repeat and add another layer of custard piping. The custard filling needs to be thick in order to add flavour and texture to the cake
- Place the second layer of cake on top and spread the chocolate Ganache all over – thick layer
- Let it set for 15mins to let the custard bring the layers together and set
