Boston Cream Pie

By request, here is the recipe.

Sponge cake

1/2 cup plain cake flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp in salted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Oven rack at the lower-mid position. Grease two 8" round pans, press parchment paper into the bottoms.

Whisk first four ingredients together. Set aside.

Heat milk and butter over a low heat until the butter melts. Stir in vanilla, cover and set aside.

Separate the whites from 3 of the eggs. Reserve the yolks. Beat the whites until foamy. Gradually add 6 Tbsp of sugar, and continue to beat until soft, moist peaks form. You don't want to over beat to form hard peaks. Set aside.

Beat the 3 reserved egg yolks and remaining whole eggs together with 6 Tbsp sugar until very thick and pale in color. This can take five minutes or more. Add this to the whites.

Sprinkle the flour mix over the egg foams. Fold gently 12x. Make a well on one side of the bowl, pour milk mix into well. Fold gently until batter shows no signs of raw flour. 8x

Pour batter into pans. Bake 16-20 minutes, until cake tops are light brown, firm and spring back when pressed. Immediately run a butter knife along the edges. Use a towel and plate to invert the cake and place it on a cooling rack. You do not want the cake to cool in the pan.


Pastry Cream
2 cups milk
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup corn starch, sifted
1tsp vanilla extract
1Tbsp Rum
2 Tbsp unsalted butter

Chocolate Glaze

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup (if this freaks you out, I will teach you how to make your own)
8 oz semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp vanilla


Making the pastry cream:

Heat, but not simmer, the milk in a small pan. Whisk yolks. Sugar and the salt in a large saucepan, 3-4 minutes, until thick and lemon in color. (Your winter eggs will do this, summer eggs will be darker) stir in the cornstarch. Whisk in the hot milk slowly. Cook over a med-low heat, constantly whisking and side scrapping, until it reaches a pudding type consistency. You want to remove all traces of the corn starch flavor. This can take 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and rum. Cool to room temp. Next place a piece of plastic wrap over the pastry cream, press down gently onto the cream to prevent cream from forming a skin. You can refrigerate this over night, but only need a few hours for it to firm up. Do not stir or whisk again.

Chocolate glaze:

Over a medium heat, in a medium saucepan, bring the heavy cream and corn syrup to a full simmer. Remove from heat, add chocolate, cover and set aside until chocolate melts. 8 minutes. Stir in the vanilla, gently as we are not making a whipped cream. Cool until tepid.

Presentation:

Place one cake on a serving plate and evenly spread out all the pastry cream, to the edges. Place second cake on top, lining it up carefully. Pour glaze over the center of the top cake, help spread it over the top and down the sides. Allow the cake to set, 1 hour before serving.


Told you it took a long time to make, but oh so worth it.