Massachusetts - Boston Cream Pie

50 weeks, 50 states, 50 desserts

The sixth state is Massachusetts, having ratified the Constitution on February 6, 1788.  Massachusetts does have a state dessert, and it's the only dessert I can think of when I think of Massachusetts, Boston Cream Pie.   This "pie" is actually two layers of cake with a cream filling layer between and topped with a chocolate frosting/glaze.  Boston Cream Pie is/was made famous from Boston's Parker House hotel.  

Massachusetts - Boston Cream Pie
State #6
February 6, 1788
Seeing how my grandfather is from this area, I went to the family cookbook for a recipe.  Unfortunately, there wasn't one to be found there.

The Boston Cream Pie has three parts. 
1. The Cake. 
2.  The Filling. 
3.  The Frosting.

Ingredients
For the cake:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the cream:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


For the chocolate glaze: 4 1/2 tablespoons butter
3 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
About 2 tablespoons hot water

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Grease and flour a round layer pan, 9 x 1 1/2 inches.
In a bowl combine all cake ingredients.  Combine well while scraping the bowl occasionally to get everything mixed well.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
This part was super easy, just mix everything up.  No pics of this because who really needs to see me mixing up ingredients?

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.
Cool 10 minutes, then remove from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack.

Here is my cake part.
If you look at the bottom half portion (top part in picture), you can see that I didn't quite get it to come out of the pan cleanly and had to try to get a knife in there to loosen it up.

For the cream:
Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a 2 quart saucepan.
In a glass measuring cup, mix milk and egg yolks.
Pour and stir the milk mixture gradually into the sugar mixture.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils.

You can see that it is getting thicker by the way it is sticking to the sides of the pan... And it also feels thicker as you are stirring it up.

Boil and stir for one minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla and cool completely.

Once cooled it looks like this.  Pretty thick and color is between yellow and white.

To make the chocolate glaze:
Heat butter and chocolate in a 2 quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until melted and smooth.

When you combine the butter and chocolate it is pretty runny.

Remove from heat and stir in sugar and vanilla.

Then, when you stir in the sugar and vanilla it becomes pretty stiff and hard to stir.

Stir in water, one teaspoon at a time, until smooth and of spreading consistency.

I honestly had my doubts about this step.  I thought there was no way it would work.  But it does!  Stir in each teaspoon of water completely before going to the next one. 

The glaze should be just slightly runny but still solid.

To assemble the cake: 
Split the cake in half horizontally and place the bottom half on a cake stand orplate.
Spread cream evenly on top to within 1/2 inch of the sides.
Place the top of the cake on top of the cream.


Spread the top of the cake with chocolate glaze, letting it run slightly over the sides.

Once I got to leting it run off the edges it didn't run as smoothly as I thought it would.  But if you let it sit it should eventually migrate down.  Then you can put it in the refrigerator to finish making it solid.

Enjoy!