Boston Cream Pie

Two days ago marked our 200th sale at the catering/meal delivery place where I work. You know what I'm going to say, right? Time for cake! We decided on a Boston Cream Pie to mark the occasion.

Before making this cake, I had never made pastry cream. I had, however, made vanilla pudding. Turns out, they're basically the same. If you've never made a custard, fear not; homemade pastry cream is too easy not to make from scratch. Just please, for the love of all that is good and holy, do not buy pudding and stuff it between your cake layers. It will taste as bad as it sounds.

This recipe comes from King Arthur Flour, a wonderful and reliable recipe source. Boston Cream Pie has a few more steps than your traditional yellow cake with chocolate frosting, but a few elements can be made in advance. For instance, the pastry cream will last in the fridge for up to 5 days. Also, I baked the cake one day in advance, wrapped it tightly in plastic, and refrigerated it until I was ready to assemble the final cake.

Boston Cream Pie

For the cake:
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups cake flour*
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
*Don't rush to the store for cake flour; you'll need cornstarch to make pastry cream, so read the box. Cornstarch+flour=cake flour. Amazing, I know.

1 1/2 cups prepared pastry cream (see below)

For the glaze
1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream
1 tablespoon corn syrup
3/4 cup chopped dark chocolate or dark chocolate chunks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9" round cake pan with non-stick spray, line it with parchment, and spray the parchment.
2. To prepare the cake: In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until very thick, until the batter falls from the paddle in thick ribbons. This will take a few minutes. Beat in the vanilla.
3. Bring the milk and butter to a simmer in a small saucepan. Slowly stream it into the egg/sugar mixture with the mixer going, and beat for another minute.
4. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt over the cake batter. Mix on low speed just until combined.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Check carefully for lumps and remove any with a small spoon. Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes, or until it's a deep golden brown and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.
6. Remove the cake from the oven, run a table knife around the edges, and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Turn the cake onto to a rack to cool completely.
7. When the cake is completely cool, use a long serrated knife or a cake slicer to slice into two equal layers. Fill with the pastry cream, spreading it right to the edges. Replace the top layer.
8. Prepare the glaze by melting the chocolate, corn syrup, and cream together until smooth and lump free. Add the vanilla and stir well. Pour the glaze over the filled cake, allowing some to drip down the sides and serve immediately. Store any leftovers in the fridge, well wrapped in plastic.

PASTRY CREAM
3 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon flour
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup butter

1. In a medium-sized saucepan, stir together 2 1/2 cups milk, sugar, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch, flour, and egg yolks with the remaining 1/2 cup milk.
3. Whisk some of the hot milk mixture into egg yolks to temper them.
4. Pour the egg/milk mixture through a strainer back into the remaining simmering milk. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens.
5. Remove from the heat and strain through a fine sieve. Stir in the butter and vanilla extract.
6. Rub a piece of butter over the surface of the cream, top with a piece of plastic wrap (make sure it touches the top of the pastry cream so it doesn't develop a skin), and then refrigerate until cool.

Note: This pastry cream recipe yields 3 cups, or twice what you'll need for your Boston Cream Pie. It will keep, refrigerated, for up to five days. Makes a good excuse to try your hand at cream puffs!

Now, what does Boston Cream Pie have to do with today's holiday? Absolutely nothing. Happy Halloween!

Until next time!

Fishy Birthday

It's MoMo's birthday! Well...it was. Back in April. It may have taken me until Mother's Day to post about it, but her birthday cake was on time!
Sure, I could have settled and bought a pre-made monstrosity from the grocery store...who am I kidding? Buying a cake would probably cause me to burst into flames, and I don't want to risk that. Besides, to me, store-bought birthday cakes always tend to look something like this:

I don't even want to know

Instead of questionably themed, chemically altered baked goods, I read a little on shaped cakes. Inspired by this cake from Martha Stewart magazine, I decided to take the plunge. MoMo loves the ocean, spends her summers on the beach, and has Finding Nemo practically memorized. I knew she'd get a kick out of a fish cake.
It was very do-able. There was no fondant rolling or finicky layer-stacking. Just a 13x9 yellow cake and a small mountain of lemon buttercream.
My fishy isn't perfect, but MoMo loved him. She said it was the best birthday cake she'd ever had. Not bad for my first try!

I reduced the size of the pattern pieces so they'd all fit on one 13x9 cake. The original instructions called for two cakes, and I thought that was too much. I fastened the pieces down with toothpicks so they wouldn't shift as I cut them out with a paring knife.

Woo! I think we all know those scraps were put to good use ;]

Fit the pieces like a tasty puzzle and use light blue buttercream to hold together

Before you dye the buttercream blue, put 1/8 c aside and dye it red for the mouth.

Crumb coat

I refrigerated the cake between the crumb coat and the second layer of icing to keep the buttercream from getting unruly.

Clean, neater fin details

Darken the remaining icing and pipe scales using a petal icing tip

Add a squiggly smile!

It's time for your close-up! The camera loves you!

I covered the pan with blue Mardi Gras beads and sprinkled paper spirals over the top. Each spiral had a 'remember when' line on it. It was so fun watching MoMo unfurl each spiral and laugh.

Happy birthday MoMo! Just keep swimming!

Until next time!

Seeing Stripes

It's time to get creative! How about whipping up a couple zebra-striped cakes? And no, I'm not talking about these:

I'm talking about two miniature cakes, marbled with chocolate and vanilla. You in?

Zebra-Striped Mini-Cakes

¼ c sugar

1 egg

¼ c vegetable oil

¼ c milk

¼ tsp vanilla

½ c flour

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt (1/16 tsp)

1 Tbl cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease two mini cake pans (4” diameter), line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper, and then spray the bottoms with nonstick cooking spray.

Blend sugar and egg until light—about two minutes. With your mixer on low, blend in the oil, milk, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. Then gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet. Combine on medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl halfway through mixing. Remove ½ cup of the batter and sift cocoa powder on top. Whisk until smooth.

Scoop a small amount (1/2 tablespoon) of vanilla batter into the center of each pan. Then using a different spoon, scoop the same amount of chocolate batter into the middle of the vanilla batter in the pan.

Continue doing this, alternating the batter flavors. You’ll see the batter spread out and form little rings, growing thinner as they move toward the edges of the pans. Pretty, huh?

Stop filling the pans once the batter reaches about halfway up the sides, or when you run out of batter. Whichever happens first.

Put the pans on a baking sheet to make them easier to handle and bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their pans for fifteen minutes on a rack before unmolding and letting cool completely on the rack.

These little babies don’t need icing, but feel free!

Until next time!

Homemade Dunkaroos

Remember Dunkaroos? Those little packs of kangaroo-shaped cookies, complete with a cup of icing for dipping? A perfect idea for lunchboxes, but they were so artificial. Needless to say, those little devils were full of p.h.o. and all sorts of preservatives. Who wants that in their lunch?

So without further ado, I present a recipe so simple, it's almost cheating.
Homemade Dunkaroos
1 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 c flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

Meez

To make your Dunkaroos, you'll need a cookie press. This one used to be my Grandmother's--thank you Gmom! The beauty of using a press is two fold: 1) All of your cookies will be uniform 2) You get to choose the shape--keepin' things interesting!
Onto the cooking...

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar

Beat in the egg and vanilla

Sift all of the dry ingredients together

Then gradually blend the dry ingredients into the wet

Choose an insert--this one's a Scottie--and fill your cookie press

Camels! I made a few butterflies, too!

Space the cookies a couple inches apart on an ungreased, nonstick cookie pan. Bake 10-12 minutes, turning the pan once.

And now, what good are these little beauties without the icing? I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, and found a pack of Dunkaroos in my lunchbox, I felt obligated to stick my finger in the container and dig out all the icing. The homemade version is no different. Dunkaroos just aren't Dunkaroos without the icing. Since most recipes yield enough to frost whole cakes, and because my lunchbox doesn't need 3 cups of icing, I scaled it down.

I started with 2 Tbl of softened butter

Creamed the mess out of it

Added a scant cup of powdered sugar and stirred to combine 

Did someone say chocolate?

Then I added cocoa powder, half a teaspoon at a time, until it looked tasty, and poured in a tiny bit of milk

Just the right amount!

<><>

<>

The perfect lunchtime dessert!

Why I should never talk on the phone while baking!

Until next time!