Recipe 89: Boston Cream Pie

I feel like as I round up The Book, I'm having more and more issues with the recipes. I don't know if it is because I want to finish, or if I really did just save the hard ones for the end. The Angel Food Cake didn't for peaks, the Apple Dumplings stuck/exploded/tore, and today, my cake pan mutilated the Boston Cream Pie cake. A broken cake is something that makes me frustrated, but is something I can deal with. But that wasn't the only issue with the Boston Cream Pie.

The cream came together much easier for this than it did for the Cream Puffs I made back in the fall (that seems so long ago!). And while that chilled, I made the cake. The cake itself was easy to make. But the post-baking part was the difficult part. I greased and floured the cake pan, just like BC said, but that didn't seem to matter. When I inverted it to pop the cake out, almost half the the cake came stuck to the bottom of the pan while the rest came out. It's not the first time this has happened either: it happened with the German Chocolate Cake. I think it's time I get new round cake pans. The ones I had were Gramma Donohoe's, and they are probably as old as I am, if not older. I managed to put it back together. Once it cooled, I used my nifty cake slicer I got for my cake decorating class to slice the cake in half. The cream filled the cake nicely, and I let it cool overnight.

This morning I made the chocolate icing. Here came issue two: the icing was too runny. I melted the butter and chocolate, added the powdered sugar and vanilla, then the 3 tablespoons of hot water, just like the directions said. The directions should have said "start with 2 tablespoons of water, and add more if needed." The icing was so runny, it ran right off the cake. Yeah, some was on there still, but it looked really sloppy and messy. So, with much frustration, I cleaned it up, wrapped it up, and took it home for Mom to give to the boys. A few hours later, I get the following text from Mom: "Tell ur daughter that the pie was amazing! It was hard to stop eating! Thanks!" I guess the guys enjoyed it. I have my little one sitting in the fridge waiting for me to eat it.

From Betty Crocker's Baking Basics, 2009

Also online

See the mess? That is what happened with 3 tablespoons of water. I did clean it up before I delivered it.

Ingredients

Cream Filling

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

Cake

Baking spray with flour to grease pan

1 1/4 cup flour or 1 1/2 cup cake flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter or margarine, room temperature

3/4 cup milk

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

Chocolate Icing

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

3 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate

3 to 4 tablespoons water

1 cup powdered sugar

3/4 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1. Place an egg separator over a small bowl. Crack open 1 egg over th egg separator to separate the yolk from the white; then separate the other egg (save whites for another recipe). In a small bowl, place the yolks. Beat the egg y0lks with a fork or wire whisk until mixed. Stir in 1 1/2 cups milk; set aside.

2. In a 2-qt. saucepan, stir 1/3 cup sugar, the cornstarch and 1/8 teaspoon salt until mixed. Gradually stir egg mixture into sugar mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla. Press plastic wrap on surface of filing to prevent a tough layer from forming on top. Refrigerate at least 2 hours until set but no longer than 24 hours. While filling is chilling, continue with recipe.

3. Heat the oven to 250. Spray just the bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan with the baking spray.

4. In a large bowl, beat all cake ingredients with an electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, stopping frequently to scrape batter from side and bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape bowl. Pour batter into the pan; use a rubber spatula to scrape batter from bowl. Spread batter evenly in pan and smooth top of batter.

5. Bake about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on cooling rack 20 minutes, then remove onto cooling rack to finish cooling completely, about 1 hour.

6. In a 1-qt. saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons butter and the chocolate over low heat, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, in 1-cup glass measuring cup, microwave the water uncovered on High 15 to 30 seconds or until hot. Remove chocolate mixture from heat. Stir in the powdered sugar and 3/4 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in 3 tablespoons hot water. Stir in additional water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until icing is smooth and thin enough to spread.

7. To split cake horizontally in half, mark middle points around side of cake with toothpicks. Using toothpicks as a guide, cut through the cake with a long, sharp knife, using a back-and-forth motion. On a serving plate, place bottom layer with the cut side up. spread filling over bottom layer. Top with top of cake, cut side down.

8. Spread glaze over top of cake, using a metal spatula or back of a spoon, letting some glaze drizzle down side of cake. Refrigerate uncovered until serving. Store any remaining cake covered in the refrigerator.