Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

Yesterday I tried making the Boston Cream Pie cupcakes from my Martha Stewart book. I was a bit unsure at first seeing as they’re not what I would call proper cupcakes. You don’t make them in pretty cupcake cases and you don’t top them with lashings of frosting. However I was very happily surprises with the finished product. They were absolutely delicious! Full of flavour and light as a feather! I didn’t stray from the recipe at all apart from topping the cupcakes with melted milk chocolate instead of the required chocolate ganache due to the fact that I’d run out of cream! Oh well, they were still lovely! Here’s the recipe;

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes
(recipe makes around 20)

Ingredients

6 Tbsps Unsalted Butter (plus more for tins)
1 and a 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour (plus more for tins)
1 and a 1/2 Tsps Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Milk
3 Large Eggs, room temperature
1 Cup Sugar
1 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Pastry Cream (ingredients and recipe to follow)
Chocolate Ganache Glaze (ingredients and recipe to follow)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour standard muffin tins. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Warm milk and butter in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Beat eggs and sugar with a mixer on high speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Beat in dry ingredients.

3. Bring milk and butter to a boil. With mixer on low speed, add milk mixture to batter, and beat until smooth. Add vanilla. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each halfway. Bake cupcakes until light gold, about 15 minutes. Let cool in tins for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks. Let cool.

4. Using a serrated knife, cut each in half horizontally. Spread 1 tablespoon vanilla cream on each cupcake bottom. Sandwich with top. Spoon glaze over each, and serve immediately.

Pastry Cream

Ingredients

4 Large Egg Yolks
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Cornstarch
Pinch of Salt
2 Cups Milk
1 and a 1/4 Tsps Pure Vanilla Extract

Method

1. Whisk egg yolks until smooth in a large bowl. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan, and heat over medium. Stirring constantly, gradually add milk in a slow, steady stream, and cook until mixture thickens and begins to bubble, about 5 minutes.

2. Whisking constantly, slowly pour one third of the milk mixture into egg yolks (this step is called tempering, which keeps the yolks from curdling). Pour mixture into remaining milk mixture in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a full boil and is thick enough to hold its shape when lifted with a spoon, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.
3. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl. Cover with parchment paper or plastic wrap, pressing it directly on surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled and firm, at least 2 hours (or up to 2 days)

Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Ingredients

6 Oz Semisweet Chocolate, finely chopped
2/3 Cup Heavy Cream
1 Tbsp Light Corn Syrup

Method

1. Place chocolate in a medium-size heatproof bowl. Bring cream and corn syrup just to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; pour mixture over chocolate. Let stand, without stirring, until chocolate begins to melt.

2. Using a flexible spatula, gently stir chocolate and cream until totally combined; begin near the center of the bowl and gradually work your way toward the edge, pulling in as much chocolate as possible, until the mixture is smooth and glossy. (If any chocolate pieces remain, strain mixture through a fine sieve and discard solids.) If not using immediately, glaze can be refrigerated up to 5 days in an airtight container. Reheat gently before using.

All above recipes from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes. Available from Amazon.co.uk

Welcome to Baking and Caking

Welcome!

Previously Baking and Caking has been found at Blogspot but I’ve decided to relocate. It’s quite exciting and I haven’t quite finished moving in quite yet so bare with me. I need to transfer some older recipes here so they’ll be arriving soon.

Here you’ll find lots of recipes tht I’ve tested so you don’t have to! I’ll post baking disasters that you can learn by and, hopefully, some baking loveliness that you can try yourself too.

Enough babble, lets get to the recipes!