Bake #3: Kitchen Guardian bakes Boston Cream Pie

Click here to read Kitchen Guardian's account baking the BCPC!!

Bake #3: Tina Bakes Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

What can I say, I love this cake! The very reason I chose it is because it has my favourite filling - vanilla pastry cream and my favourite topping - chocolate ganache. Put them together - PERFECTION. Jenny is right about the sponge cake - really nothing to shout about, but I guess just like a tri-partite relationship where you can't have everyone screaming for attention all at the same time, the mild taste of the cake compliments the other two well.

I started by making the pastry cream first and got them ready to chill in the fridge (recipe says min 2 hours). I love the smooth texture of the mixture as I whisked the egg yolk, milk and butter together... lovely, all natural colour too!!

Next was the cake. In a haste, I almost whisk the butter and sugar together!!, taking for granted that this recipe is just like any other. Thank God I read the recipe thoroughly before mixing the measured ingredients. Now, the recipe calls for 6 tablespoons of butter - how do you measure that accurately? To be exact, I googled tablespoons to cups conversion and this was what I got!!

6 tablespoons = 3/8 cup. huh???. that makes 12 tablespoons = 3/4 cup. So I went with half of three quarter cups. That made my life easier :)

I baked the cakes in a muffin tin... take a look at my photo below... the cake rose only in the middle, making it look like a hat!! :) I also tried baking some in solo cups and they turned out fine, rising only slightly and evenly. However, when baked in solo cups, the cakes don't brown evenly on the sides which makes it look pale and a little unattractive on its own.


I had 12 cakes baked in muffin tins and 6 in solo cups. *note to self: please halve the recipe next time unless baking for a party :) I'm glad 6 of my eldest daughter's friends are coming over tomorrow to do a school project - I already have the teatime cake ready!! :)
I'm excited to see how yours turn out... and I welcome tips and tricks as well!! :) Oh! before I forget, cornstarch (American term) is the same as cornflour (English term). And a little factual info - this cake was chosen as the Massachusetts state dessert in 1996!!

Next up, Jenny's pick - Meyer Lemon Cupcakes!!
p/s: I've been to Boston!! Go Red Sox!! :)

Bake #3: Jenny bakes Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

First off, a very warm shout-out to all our new FWB bakers! This is going to be our FIRST ever bake-along that involves more than just Tina and me. How exciting!!

When Tina revealed her pick for this week's bake, I was like "phew!" in my head. I thought it would be something elaborate like this or this or even this. I have quite little patience with intricate cake designs and I think Tina knows what a novice I am when it comes to cake decorating. Phew! What a relief!

I've always wanted to visit Boston but the closest thing I ever got to was a Boston Cream Pie! The irony is, the Boston Cream Pie was invented by a French chef! Rich, vanilla pastry cream (not to be confused with custard) sandwiched between double-layer sponge cake. The French invented and perfected pastry cream so I guess it's not that much of an irony after all? Enough digression. Back to the BCPC, this recipe was easy to follow. I didn't bother with portion reduction and managed to get around 15 muffin-sized cakes plus 2 mini loafs; I just had to use my new teenie-weenie-mini loaf pans! The sponge cake was nothing spectacular but the light flavor allows the silky pastry cream and creamy chocolate glaze to shine. And shine they did!!
Here's my BCPC turned out. I styled couple cupcakes for photoshoot and made a cup of espresso to go along......I guess there's no need for explanation as to why I only managed to take a single photo....*munch* * slurp* *munch*....hmmmm....

Bake#3: Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

(click photo for recipe)

Are you girls ready?? This is our quest for this week!! (Feb 6&7). Well, it was supposed to be the quest for last weekend of Jan, but we're behind time due to a hectic week that was (third week and already slacking??) not good!! haha..

Let's do this this weekend and post it on your blogs/FB ok ladies... Jenny and I will post ours in this blog.

See you soon!!