So, I have a repertoire of cakes. A limited repertoire, but a repertoire nonetheless.
There's Spice Cake, and Hot Milk Sponge Cake. Strawberry Cake and Guinness Cake. And Boston Creme Pie. Basically a cake per birthday in our house, not counting my own.
I find cakes to be fairly easy to make, and fairly hard to mess up. Which wasn't always the case. Women used to bake with cake flour and had to beat egg whites perfectly or their cakes would fall. That simply isn't the case any more. Now cakes generally mix up with the wet ingredients being mixed into the dry ingredients. Sometimes the eggs get added later, but generally they don't require tons of steps anymore.
I love cake and I love buttercream frosting. I'd pick cake for dessert over pie almost any day of the week.
The recipe I am sharing with you today is the cake that I made for BMV's birthday last week. It is the cake I usually make for Mr. Hippie's birthday. But, since we'd just had a Guinness cake, this one seemed like a good bet.
Boston Creme Pie is called pie for who knows what reason... All wikipedia says is that it is in fact a cake. Thanks, wikipedia. For nothin'.
Ironically enough, though it is a cake called a pie, it is categorized in my cookbook as a pudding and soft dessert dessert. Say what? I think people are just plain confused when it comes to Boston Creme Pie.
The creme part of the title comes from the (box) pudding filling. Anyway, it is a snap to make, and it looks delectable, so I hope you'll give the recipe a whirl.
Boston Creme Pie
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups sugar, divided
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
1 (3.5 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
1-3/4 cup milk
2 cups (12 oz) chocolate chips
1 cup whipping cream
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
-Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup sugar.
-Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Put the yolks in the flour mixture and set aside the whites. Add the oil, vanilla and 1 cup milk to the flour. Beat on medium for 2 minutes, scraping often.
-In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the 1/2 cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter.
-Pour the batter in 3 greased 9" round baking pans.
-Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes clean.
-Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
-Meanwhile, whisk the pudding with the 1-3/4 cups of milk. Chill well.
-After the cakes are done baking, melt the chocolate chips with the whipping cream in a small saucepan over low. Cool completely in the refrigerator.
-Assemble the cake by alternating a cake layer, half the pudding, another cake layer, the other half of the pudding and the final cake layer. Pour the cooled ganache over all, spreading to cover the sides.
-Store in the refrigerator.
Mr. Hippie and I are heading off sans kids for a weekend away. I am looking forward to some biking and beach time. We have several hours in the car. That means we will have some great talking time. I'm pretty excited!
Have a great weekend!
