Baked Sunday Mornings: Boston Cream Pie Cake

TONIGHT, BUDDY, No 1 SON'S 6 MONTH OLD "BABY" IS READY FOR DINNER--SHE IS BETTER LOOKING THAN MY BOSTON CREAM PIE CAKE---SO, SHE CAN HEAD MY POST

I'M DISAPPOINTED IN THIS PIE/CAKE

It is 1:40 am Sunday morning; soon time to post.  I just finished baking and tasting the Baked Boston Cream Pie Cake.  Before baking this cake I  baked 100 mini pumpkin cakes and topped them with caramel cream cheese frosting and a Thanksgiving garnish for my adult Sunday school class...in just a few hours.  Hubby was watching the exciting ASU vs U of A football game and then caught up on current event news...I think he was waiting for his tastes especially when he saw the chocolate parts of the Boston cake coming together.
                            

Our office building, exactly 2 miles from our home,  is located in the Heritage District of Downtown Gilbert.  We rebuilt an old building that is  on Gilbert Road and across the road from a large empty lot where our annual Gilbert Days is happening. 

Gilbert Days always includes rodeos, a parade, a carnival, the farmer’s market, crafts, foods, and fun.  The news announcer for the parade sits directly across the road from our building where we and our friends have front row seats.  This morning we enjoyed all the school bands and dancers and beauty queens who perform their best for local TV.  The carnival with all the lights and screaming girls on wild rides is right outside our front windows.  And all the junk food one would expect at a carnival or state fair are right there too.    Yum if you like belly aches as it ist really junky food.

This year’s parade included some firsts.  Featured were the first garbage trucks I’ve ever seen in our parade...all washed and smelling good.  And Santa came this year...isn’t it kinda early?  High school football teams were throwing their balls and dancing down the street as part of the parade.  We had the air force jets which are a usual, but also had three restored flying-overhead airplanes...yellow...that looked like something  Wilber Wright would have flown and spewing clouds of smoke out their tails.  They were flown by the Army who also included vintage tanks and trucks in the parade.

We all enjoyed the Dancing Grandmas...have them every year...they have great dancer legs enhanced by their shimmering panty hose and mini skirts.  My friend sitting next to me wants to join them in the future but her husband says he’ll divorce her if she does...but she’s a dancer and is serious.  We had Sheriff Joe Arpio who is an Arizona hero to many and hated by others...he makes national news often and once asked Hubby to be one of his deputies.  I’m glad Hubby did not go that route...Sheriff Joe does dangerous work.

There were lots of high school bands; some of them were really good.  And because we are Gilbert, AZ, there were lots of horses and cowboys and girls, and rodeo queens, and horse poop and poop scoopers.

It is 60^ out right now, and was about 80^ earlier.  This week should linger between 70 and 80 depending on the storm systems up North.  This morning I saw some colored leaves on a few trees as I drove down the road...guess Fall is arriving early this year...usually comes mid-December.  The reds and yellows are beautiful...I guess it’s our change of seasons.

I had been ambitious and made the pie/cake recipe a few days ago, cupcake size, and I was disappointed not in the taste, but in the sinking middles.  I decided this recipe was not meant for cupcakes, which I had planned to cut in half, fill with pastry creams, and top with the ganache with fruit on top as part of my dessert table for my baby shower for a friend.  But...with the sinking middles, I filled the dips with  freshly whipped cream and added strawberries on top.  They were tasty and pretty but I knew I would need to re-do this recipe.

So tonight I did.  I got out my 8" cake pans, made the recipe as written, and one cake fell badly in the middle. UGGGG!  I noticed when portioning out the batter to each pan that the 2nd pan, getting the batter from the bottom half of the bowl, had more of the butter mixture which seemed to sink to the bottom after being folded in as the final addition to the batter.  I had noticed the same thing happened to my cupcakes.  One pan actually turned out OK, but the second pan, the pan getting batter from the bottom half of the bowl, had the sinking cupcakes.  The butter seems to separate after being folded in and even though I don’t let the batter rest and I portion it out quickly, I find buttery batter at the bowl bottom.  I don't think I should have to beat the batter into the mixture...I did fold it in well...at least I thought I did.

I had been skeptical of the sponge cake part of the recipe from the first time I read it.  My typical sponge cake recipes...my favorites are from my grandma who lived on a farm and had lots of eggs to use and often made sponge cakes, and the other I like is from William-Sonoma, both have me whip the yolk mixture and then the whites separately to fairly stiff peaks...and then fold the whites into the yolk mixture and it works perfectly every time.  But this recipe without separated eggs and with the butter/milk added at the end does not work well for me.

THE BOTTOM LAYER IS ABOUT THE RIGHT SIZE AFTER PEELING OFF THE BUTTERY BOTTOM PART...THE REMAINDER LOOKED LIKE GOOD SPONGE CAKE

I watched a how-to video of a similar Boston Cream Pie on a Joy of Cooking video.  That cake was made how I make my sponge cakes, with the separated eggs whipped and then folded into each other.  They also have the milk/butter mixture which is also added at the end, but the consistency using the separated eggs is different and the cake bakes differently.

When I dumped my cakes out of the pans there was a layer on the bottom of the most sunken cake (the butter seemed to sink worse to the cake bottom) that actually separated from the rest of the cake...a more buttery layer which I removed and threw away...so I did not cut that layer in ½.  The remaining layer, the one that got the batter from the top portion of the bowl, baked better so I cut that one in half.

But I was disappointed and just threw the rest of this cake together, just to get it done.

SEE THE GOOD PART, THE PUDDING, OOZING OUT BETWEEN THE LAYERS?--I KEEP MOVING THIS CAKE TO A DIFFERENT SPOT IN THE KITCHEN HOPING IT WILL LOOK BETTER...BUT, NO

The pastry creams were good and ganache is always good.  I put the cake all together and without letting it set up a little...well, it was almost 1 am at this point...I cut the cake and Hubby and I tried a piece.  Hubby announced that it was good, and I announced that it was ugly and not what I was after....I announced this part to myself...I’ll let Hubby think it is good.

I put the cake in the fridge where if can set up and be ready for Sunday dinner.  I’m sure some of my family will come and enjoy my mess and I’m hoping I have a few of my pumpkin cakes left over because I will be proud of those.

Oh well, kitchen fun does produce failures on occasion.  But I am determined to make this recipe again, but using my sponge cake instead of Baked’s, and I’ll let you all know how that turns out.

I’m interested to see how this worked out for my Baked friends.  Hope you all had much better luck with your pie/cakes.

THE PIECE HUBBY AND I SHARED BEFORE I SENT HIM TO BED...I DID NOT WAIT TO LET THE LAYERS SET UP, BUT IT WAS GOOEY AND GOOD

MY BABY SHOWER DESSERT TABLE

I made Caramel-Apple-Pecan-Date Cake, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Chocolate Cheesecake, Baby Feet Sugar Cookies, Sugar and Spice Nuts, Caramel Popcorn, etc mix, pumpkin cakelets, and my Frolicking Night Owl daughter made chocolate cupcakes.....and do you see the failed sponge cake cupcakes with the strawberries and cream to hide them?  I cut that part out of the pic and here it is......

HERE THEY ARE

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING!  AND STAY WARM.