If you read my How To Make Stuffed Cupcakes post, these pictures probably look familiar to you. I had so many people ask for that recipe (OK, one. One person asked, but still…) that I decided to post my recipe for Boston Cream Pie cupcakes.
Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes
For the Cupcake:
2 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 stick of butter
1/2 cups of sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbs vanilla extract
4 egg whites
3/4 cup of whole milk
1/4 cup of oil
For the Filling:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, plus one extra yolk
2 tbs flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
For the Ganache Frosting:
2 cups dark chocolate chunks
1 cup cream
1 tsp espresso powder
Preheat oven to 350.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter (softened!) and sugar and cream until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until well combined. In another bowl, add the milk and oil.
A bit at a time, add the egg whites to the butter and beat on high until well combined and fluffy. With mixer on medium, add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, alternating between the two until everything is just combined (don’t over beat).
Add the batter to the cupcake papers until about 2/3 filled.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cake springs back when touched.
Allow to cool.
While those are baking, make the pastry cream. You’re gonna love this stuff. I hope that this is what you will make from now on to fill your cakes with, instead of frosting. SO delicious, and pretty easy to make.
In a sauce pan over medium heat, bring the cream to a slight simmer, removing from heat when bubbles start to form around the edges. You don’t want to boil you cream, just heat it.
In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, eggs and yolk, and flour until well combined and slightly frothy.
While continuing to whisk the egg mixture, add the cream about 1 tbs at a time. This is called tempering and basically, it’s a way to avoid turning your pastry cream into scrambled eggs. Once your have added about half the cream a tbs at a time, pour the rest in slowly and whisk until well combined.
Return the pastry cream to the stove and stir over medium/high heat until it comes to a rapid simmer. Continue to whisk until thickened, between 5 and 10 minutes. The cream should leave a track when you drag the whisk through it.
Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. This needs to cool before putting into a piping bag. Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing it to the surface of the cream. This will avoid that gross skin that used to grow on top of the homemade pudding your grandma used to make when it sat in the fridge too long.
You may, or may not remember my How To Make Stuffed Cupcakes post, but you use the same method of filling as I used for those.
Take a small paring knife and remove a chunk of the center of the cupcake. Make sure you leave an ample amount of the wall and sides of the cupcake intact or the filling will run all over the place.
Once the cream has cooled, spoon into a piping bag. Pipe the pastry cream into the middle of the cupcakes.
Next, make the ganache. Ganache is really easy to make, and a fantastic alternative to frosting. This can also be used as a fabulous cake filling.
Put the chocolate in a heat safe bowl, sprinkle with espresso powder. You can omit the espresso powder, but the coffee flavor doesn’t come through with such a small amount. Coffee brightens the flavor of chocolate, that’s why so many chocolate cake recipes call for it. Heat the cream (microwave or stove, either is fine) until hot and steamy but NOT boiling. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir.
For a while, you are gonna stir and stir, and it will just look like chunky chocolate milk.
Don’t worry, it’ll all work out. Just keep stirring until it’s smooth and creamy.
Dip your cupcakes in the warm ganache, swirl a bit.
You can also spread it on with a spoon or pipe it on with a piping bag.
