Recently a couple of our good friends came over for dinner. Since one of them had just celebrated a birthday, I thought a birthday-appropriate dessert was in order. I remembered that he had absolutely LOVED the Boston cream pie cupcakes that I made for them a while back, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out a real Boston cream pie. In case you aren’t familiar, a Boston cream pie is two layers of yellow sponge cake filled with vanilla pastry cream and coated with chocolate ganache. Why is it called a pie, you ask? Supposedly it did originate in Boston in the 19th century, and back then pie pans were much more common kitchen equipment than cake pans – hence the name.
There is nothing particularly complicated about this cake. You just need to ensure that you set aside enough time to let the pastry cream chill and the ganache set. I have professed my undying love for this pastry cream before, and I still feel the same way. All that wonderfulness in combination with the light, moist sponge cake and the smooth ganache yields a truly fabulous dessert.
One kitchen trick I have heard about previously but never remembered to try until now is to use strips of wax or parchment paper under the edges of your cake on the cake board. You leave them there until the glaze sets and simply peel them away. This prevents the excess glaze from making the cake board messy. It really did a nice job and I will be sure to use this technique again in the future.