Boston Cream Pie

 

My favorite dessert is the Boston Cream Pie, a cake I love to make myself for my birthday around Christmas.  Over the years it's been more of a biannual tradition than an annual one since Michael won't eat it.  This year, I don't have a working oven and I'm thinking about buying a ready made cake.  I dread the flavor of all the preservatives and packaging, but I don't have much choice this year.

In recent years I've made it all from scratch.  For the custard I substitute vanilla pudding because I've never attempted to make a custard before.  Even from scratch, vanilla pudding is very easy to make.  I've done the chocolate ganache before, but the last time I made a Boston Cream Pie (about 3 years ago now), I made a basic buttercream frosting.  I usually make very basic yellow cake.  Nothing using 8 separated egg yolks, just the discount recipe that usually works for me.

This is one of my early cakes from about 7 years ago with way too much ganache.  It looked like a train wreck, but it was good.  I was proud of this since it was the first one I made entirely from scratch.  So, I took a picture.

The Boston Cream Pie was invented at the Parker House Hotel in Boston where Charles Dickens allegedly wrote A Christmas Carol while living there.

Ho Chi Minh in 1921

From 1912 to 1913, a young Ho Chi Minh worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel and probably baked hundreds of Boston Cream Pies.  Malcolm X also worked at the Parker House as a busboy.

Maybe next year I'll be able to make another Boston Cream Pie.