Boston Cream Pie

Sharl and I were looking for something to do on Sunday afternoon and we were also craving some kind of dessert, so we decided to bake this cake! It was a lot of fun and easier with two people helping with all of the steps and trying to amuse a fussy baby. It turned out to be REALLY delicious. I got this recipe from this old Good Housekeeping Book that I swear has EVERYTHING you could possibly want to cook and bake.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 large eggs

1/2 cup water

3 tbsp butter

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups sugar

Pastry Cream (recipe to follow)

Chocolate Glaze (recipe to follow)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 2 8-inch round cake pans. LIne bottoms with parchment paper; grease and flour cake pans.

2. In large bowl, beat eggs until light and tripled in volume (about 5 mins with electric mixer on high)

3. Meanwhile in small pot, combine water and butter and heat to boiling. Remove from heat and add vanilla

4. With mixer at high speed, gradually add sugar to eggs. Beat until thinck and lemon colored and mixture forms ribbon when beaters are lifted (5-8 mins). In two additions fold in flour baking powder and salt until just blended.

5. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean (20 mins). Run thin knife around layers to loosen from pans and invert to cool on wire racks. Remove parchment paper.

6. Meanwhile, prepare pastry cream.

7. When cake is cool, prepare chocolate glaze.

8. Place one cake layer, rounded side down on cake plate. Top with pastry cream. Top with second cake layer rounded side up. Pour glaze over top. Gently spread glaze evenly to edge allowing it to drip down side of cake. Let glaze set.

Pastry Cream

Heat 3/4 cup milk to boiling over medium heat.

In a large bowl, beat 2 large egg yolks with 6 tbsp milk and 1/3 cup sugar until smooth. Whisk in 2 Tbsp flour and 2 Tbsp cornstarch until combined. Gradually whisk hot milk into egg yolk mixture until blended.

Return mixture to saucepan; cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until mixture thickens and boils, about 4 mins. Reduce heat to low; cook, whisking constantly, 2 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat; stir in 1 Tbsp butter and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Pour pastry cream into a pie dish. Press plastic wrap onto surface of pastry cream to keep skin from forming as it cools. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate 2 hours or up to overnight Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Chocolate Glaze

Heat 3 squares semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped, 3 Tbsp butter, 1 Tbsp corn syrup and 1 Tbsp milk over low heat, until chocolate and butter melt and mixture is smooth. Makes about 1/2 cup.