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Feb 3, 2013

Boston Cream Pie | Avid Baker's Challenge

Boston Cream Pie

Each month of 2013, the Avid Bakers are baking a different recipe from King Arthur Flour.  This month's recipe is Boston Cream Pie.


Boston cream pie

Boston cream pie is a traditional American dessert that has a very long history. In fact, it has its own Wikipedia page, and is the official dessert of Massachusetts.

The yellow cake itself does not include a lot of oil or butter, and gets all of its richness from eggs and milk. It is baked as a single layer, sliced in half, filled with rich pastry cream, and covered in a chocolate ganache.

The most difficult part of making this cake is making the pastry cream. The cake and ganache were both really easy.


If you've seen this post, you know that my oven's computer went haywire and developed a mind of its own (It's getting fixed Tuesday, yay!). So... because this cake is baked in a single 9 inch cake pan, I decided to see if my toaster oven was up to actually baking it. Guess what? It was! In fact, the cake was done five minutes early.

Recipe Notes:

You will need a 9 inch cake pan, a strainer, a good whisk, and a long bread knife (to slice the cake in half). I used a stand mixer to mix the cake, but a hand mixer is fine. 

I used King Arthur Flour's Unbleached Cake Flour Blend, as called for in the recipe, but you could make your own by mixing 2 T of cornstarch with 1 cup of all purpose flour. I like the fact that King Arthur Flour's cake flour is unbleached and chemical free. 

Make the pastry cream a day in advance. If you are pressed for time, you can substitute instant vanilla pudding. It's not quite as flavorful, but I'd keep a small box on hand in case you have a "pastry cream malfunction."

Recipes and Links:

You can find the recipe and directions for the cake and the ganache here. You can find the recipe for pastry cream here

Boston cream pie



Would you like to comment?

  1. Wow -- your toaster oven can do THAT? That's impressive! I can barely fit a piece of toast in mine!

    Funny how each of us had a whole different type of "challenge" this time around.

    Now I want more cake.

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    1. I know Paula. It's amazing what we will overcome, ha ha! I do have a big, overly expensive, toaster oven that I bought when I was hosting Christmas two years ago and realized one oven was not enough. It does great with sides, but I had never actually tried baking in it. I'm pretty pleased, actually!

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  2. Looking great, love how the chocolate drips over the sides.
    Lucky you having two ovens!

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    1. Thanks Lien. Now that I know the toaster oven can bake!

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  3. That's a discovery that will come in handy when you need to bake lots! Love the dripping over the side glaze.

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  4. This looks so gooooood!! And the Avid Bakers sounds like so much fun. If I didn't already have too much on my plate I'd be jumping up and joining.

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    1. Thanks Kate. I know what you mean by a full plate. I do like the monthly round ups though.

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  5. I am impressed with the toaster oven!
    KAF's recipes are almost always the ones I turn back to for reliability. Your cake came out beautifully.

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  6. Your cake looks beautiful Karen! Love the up-close slice picture, the crumb looks nice and soft.

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  7. Beautiful cake - and that out of a toaster oven! I don't think mine would work so well, but then, I never even thought of trying it.

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    1. Thanks! Me neither until I had an oven malfunction =) Now I will always "need" a big one.

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  8. Beautiful cake, Karen. Love the soft crumb of your cake and your pastry cream looks silky smooth. My mom has a toaster oven that can bake "anything". I baked a pound cake in it, pizza, bread and cinnamon rolls so far.

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    1. I'm learning that my toaster oven can too. =) I'm finally able to justify the expense. Thanks Hanaâ!

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  9. Beautiful!! Boston Cream Pie has always been my favorite cake.

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    1. Thank you! This was actually the first time I'd even tried it. I took it to work and it was gone!

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  10. Love your photos. I can't believe you did this in the toaster oven. Brave girl!
    It looks beautiful!

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  11. I am simply amazed how moist all of these cakes have turned out and completely perplexed as to why mine turned out so dry when it only cooked 40 minutes! Yours looks wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

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  12. Amazingly delicious and perfect looking! You might need my address to send me one! Thank you so much for sharing this at Wednesday Extravaganza - hope to see you there again this week with more of your deliciousness :)

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