Boston Cream Pie

Finally back to our cake theme just in time for New Year's! Today’s cake is called a pie but it’s actually a cake. I am making Boston Cream Pie. In the past we have made the cupcake version which is so tasty, but for a Summer Birthday this past year I decided on trying the actual big cake. Again, there is a lot that goes into it so you want to make sure you have time, which I had lots of this past Summer.

The Cake (it’s best to make a sponge cake as it’s lighter and fluffier and not so dense)

You will need the following to make a sponge cake…

¾ cup of flour

1 tsp. of baking powder

¼ tsp. of salt

3 tbsp. of milk

2 tbsp. of butter

½ tsp. of vanilla

3 large egg whites

¼ tsp. cream of tartar

¾ cup of sugar

3 large egg yolks

2 large eggs

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans and line with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Then heat the milk and butter in a saucepan on medium heat until the butter is melted. Off of the heat stir in the vanilla and cover to keep warm.

In your mixer bowl, whip up the egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Then increase the speed and fully whip the egg whites until they are billowy mounds. Gradually whip in 6 tbsp. of sugar and continue to whip the whites until they are shiny and form soft peaks.

If you have another bowl for your mixer, great, but if not transfer the egg whites and then clean the bowl and whip the 3 eggs yolks and the full eggs on medium high speed and add 6 tbsp. of sugar. Whip until the mixture is very thick and fluffy.

Now, place the full egg mixture on top of the egg whites and then sift the flour mixture over the top of this.

Fold everything together gently until just combined.

Pour the warm milk mixture against the side of the bowl and fold some more until everything looks evenly combined and there are no streaks of flour left. Do not over stir. Scrape the batter into the pans and bake for 12-18 minutes or until the cakes are lightly browned. Be very careful when these cakes are baking. Don’t open the over or bounce around too much!

Run a knife around the outer edge of the cakes when they come out so they don’t stick. Then flip them onto a lined plate. The cakes will be wrong side down so now flip them right side up and allow them to cool on a wire rack. They should be cooled after 2 hours. I let mine sit overnight before I did anything to them.

Now for the filling.

You will need…

2 cups of whole milk

6 large egg yolks

½ cups of sugar

¼ tsp. of salt

¼ cup of cornstarch

2 tbsp. of butter

1 tsp. of vanilla

Bring the milk to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat. 

While this is happening whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and salt together in a bowl. Then whisk in the cornstarch.

Slowly whisk in the warm milk into the egg mix and then transfer the mixture back into the saucepan. Cook, whisking constantly until thick and glossy looking.

Now off of the heat, whisk in the butter and vanilla.

Transfer into a bowl and place plastic wrap on the surface. Chill and allow it to set for about 2 hours in the fridge.

Ganache/Glaze

Now lastly for the glaze topping you will need…

I waited to do this until about 20 minutes before I was ready to serve the cake because I didn’t want it to get soggy.

2/3 cup of heavy cream

¼ cup of light corn syrup

1cup of semisweet chocolate

½ tsp. of vanilla

Microwave all of the ingredients and whisk until melted and smooth. Let the glaze cool a little bit until it’s thicken but still able to pour.

Now to assemble the cake.

Place some parchment paper down and on top of that place a cooling rack with the bottom layer of your cake.

Spread the custard filling on top and then place the top layer on to of that.

It’s time to glaze. Pour the cooled chocolate glaze right in the centre on top of the cake the glaze should drip all the way down the sides. It won’t be perfectly covered. That’s ok, it’s not supposed to be.

Like I said before, do this about 20 minutes before you want to eat the cake and then put it in the fridge to harden up. You can do this up to a day before but to avoid sogginess and slippage, I would try and do it day of. The leftovers, if there are any, can go in the fridge. They may get a little smooshed and soggy but that’s alright for the leftovers. Now that was a marathon cake to bake!

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas everyone!

Black Forest Cake

For the next few weeks I am going to do a mini theme; that theme is cake! Who doesn’t love cake? Over the Summer and time at home, I have been trying out cakes that I haven’t had time for before. One of my absolute favorites is Black Forest Cake. I love the whipped cream mixed with the dark chocolate cake. I’ve never had the time to make one before so I thought I would give is a try. Here we go…

Make sure you have time to do this as there are lots of steps.

You will need…

Filling

2 cups of canned cherry filling

Whipped Cream:

¼ cup of sugar

1tbsp. of cornstarch

3 cups of heavy cream

1 ½ tsp. of vanilla extract

Cake:

I used my go to chocolate devil’s food cake recipe for this…

½ cups of cocoa powder

1 ½ cups of boiling hot water

1 tsp. of baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. of salt

1 ½ cups of flour

½ heaping cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp. of instant coffee

10 tbsp. of softened butter

1 ½ cups of brown sugar

3 eggs

½ cup of sour cream

1 tsp. of vanilla

Butter and powder with cocoa powder, two 9 inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all of your dry ingredients in one bowl.

Then in a glass measuring cup, add in the boiling hot water, chocolate chips, instant coffee, and cocoa powder and stir until all is melted and dissolved.

In your mixer's bowl, cream the butter and then add the sugar until fluffy. Slowly add in the eggs one at a time. Then add in the sour cream and vanilla and beat until it is all incorporated.

Now on low, add in a third of your flour mix, then half of the chocolate repeat until all is added. Give it a final stir at the end to make sure everything is mixed in.

Divide evenly into the cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

For this cake, I needed three layers so what I did since I only had two pans was pre divide the batter three ways and then I baked the first two. After they came out I washed the pan and re-powdered and buttered and lined it and baked the  third layer. They will be a bit thinner than your regular cake but put together it will look like a big layer cake.

Now back to the Black Forest Cake.

So after baking the cakes and letting them cool completely, I started on the rest of the cake elements.

You can be super elaborate with your filling. I wanted to keep it simple so I bought a can of cherry pie filling and I strained the cherry goo from the cherries. I had a measuring cup of cherry syrupy goo and then a bowl full of mashed cherries with a little bit of syrup on them.

On all of the layers of the chocolate cakes, I poked some holes (not all the way through) with chopsticks and I brushed on some of that cherry goo and I really saturated the layer especially the middle and bottom ones. Let those sit.

For the whipping cream, I whisked the sugar and the cornstarch together in a small saucepan and then I whisked in ½ cup of cream. Bring to a simmer whisking it constantly. Once it thickens take the mixture off the burned and allow it to cool about 30 minutes.

                                     

While that is finishing cooling, whip 2 ½ cups of cream and vanilla on low speed until frothy looking. Then increase the speed and whip this mixture until it starts to thicken. Now slowly add in the cooled cornstarch mixture until soft peaks begin to form.

                                     

Now to assemble the cake. This can be a bit messy. On your plate or platter, place on of your layers of cake down. Spread ½ cup of the whipped cream on it and then on top of that spoon half of the mashed cherries. Now place another layer of the cake on top of that one and repeat the same process but use up all of the cherries.

               

Once all of your layers are on, use the rest of the whipped cream to “ice” your cake. You can shave some chocolate or what I did was melt semi-sweet chocolate chips the day before and cut it up into little bits and put them all over the side of the cake.

Top the cake with some more of the chocolate, I made a little circular mound (about 6-8 around the cake) and then topped that with a maraschino cherry.

 Slice and serve. You want to eat this sooner rather than later so the whipped cream doesn’t lose it’s stiffness.

Coffee Cake

Another week, another recipe to try! With things still be as they are and trying to stick close to home as much as possible, I have found baking to be one of the things to look forward each week. Today I have for you a basic coffee cake. This is great with afternoon tea and to include in a brunch (when you can finally have one again). It’s simple and plain but very moist. One recipe makes a lot so luckily it’s easy to freeze!

Ingredients

For the cake:

3 cups of flour

1 tbsp. of baking powder

1 tsp. of baking soda

1 tsp. of ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. of salt

1 ¾ cups of plain yogurt or sour cream

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of granulated sugar

3 eggs

7 tbsp. of melted and cooled butter

For the topping:

1/3 cup of brown sugar

1/3 cup of granulated sugar

1/3 cup of flour

4 tbsp. of softened butter

1 tbs. of ground cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Butter two round 9 inch cake pans.

I like to mix my topping first and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, add all of the topping ingredients and then squish with your hands until you’ve got a chunky sand consistency.

In another mixing bowl, add all of your dry ingredients and whisk.

In another bowl, add the sugars, eggs, yogurt/sour cream, and butter and whisk up until all combined.

Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet and stir until all incorporated. Distribute evenly into both the prepared pans and top with your “sandy” topping. Divide the topping between the two cakes. It may look like a little much but it’ll be fine. 

These cakes puff up when cooking so it might be a good idea to put them on a cookie sheet just in cake of overflow which I have had and then the smoke and burning begins! Allow to cool and then slice. I like to keep the cakes in the pans to store and slice if I'm not freezing them otherwise it can get messy. Enjoy.