Boston Cream Pie

After a long break, I finally found a bit of time to write up a recipe! This one is a Boston delicacy that we baked with Rosie: Boston Cream Pie. The recipe is from Sweets to the Sweet.




There are three components to prepare. It is a bit labor-intensive but the result is amazing!

Cream filling:

2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the yolks in a double boiler, stir in flour, cornstarch, sugar, milk and butter. Cook over boiling water about 20 minutes till thick, stirring constantly. Rosie and I thought that a bit more corn starch could be necessary to get it thicker. Chill mixture. When cold, whip the cream with the vanilla and fold together. Yummy. Refrigerate.

Sponge cake:
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup cold water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
3/4 cup cake flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Separate eggs, yolks into a large bowl, whites into smaller. Beat the yolks for 5 minutes, gradually add cold water and beat 1 minute. Add sugar gradually and beat 3 more minutes. Stir in vanilla and lemon zest. In another bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt with a fork. Add to yolk mixture in thirds, folding in. Beat the whites with the cream of tartar till they form soft peaks. Fold into yolk mixture. Turn into 2 ungreased 8" cake pans. Go with 8" and not 8 1/2" (as in the picture -the cakes were not as thick as they could have been). Bake at 325 F for 15-20 minutes till golden and springs back to touch. Cool upside down. Run a sharp knife around outside and remove cakes from pan. Refrigerate. When ready to frost (when cream and cake chilled) make the chocolate icing.

Chocolate icing:
2 squares unsweetened chocolate (2 oz)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt chocolate in top of double boiler (or microwave), remove from heat. Beat in sugar and water at once. You need a deep bowl, it sprays around otherwise. Believe me, it does ;) Then add yolk, beat well. Beat in cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, then vanilla. We added a bit more cream to make it a bit more runny. This is one of the best chocolate icing I had. The taste is close to Nutella!

Put the cream filling between cake layers. Spread the chocolate over the top, allowing some to dribble over edges. Ignore the fact that ours did not dribble anywhere ;) Keep cake refrigerated. Enjoy!!!

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Flan au caramel traditionnel

This is a taste from my childhood that I cannot really find here in the US. So finally I decided to do it myself and it turned out pretty accurate to what I remember it to be.
Preheat oven at 350F.
First, start boiling 100ml of water with 1/3 cup (75 gr) of sugar on medium/high heat. Since it takes a while, you can stir it occasionally while you start the second task. In a small pot, boil 1/2 lt of milk with 1/3 cup (75 gr) of sugar and 1 vanilla bean (cut in half lengthwise). If you do not have a vanilla bean, you can substitute with about 1 tsp of liquid pure vanilla extract.
Beat four eggs and set aside. Remove the milk mixture from heat once it boiled for a couple minutes. When the water/sugar mix turns to light yellow/brown color, remove from heat and pour into the bottom of a medium round glass bowl (make sure that the bowl can go into the oven).
To make sure that the milk mixture do not cook the eggs, pour little bit of the milk mix into the eggs while whisking constantly. Slowly add more and continue mixing until all is mixed together.
Finally, slowly pour it into the medium bowl containing the caramel.
The flan should be cook AU BAIN-MARIE, meaning: fill a larger bowl with water and place the bowl containing the flan in it. The water should come to about half the medium bowl.
It says to bake it for 20 to 3o mins, but I had to keep it for about 40 mins. You will know it is ready if you insert a knife and it comes out clean.
After having cooled the flan in room temperature, it is best to refrigerate it for 2 hours before serving.
To serve, fill the larger bowl with hot water, let the flan rest in that bowl for a couple minutes so that the caramel underneath softens. Then turn the bowl containing the flan into a plate and watch the caramel flows from the top of the flan...
Recipe borrowed from marmiton.org

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Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients:
1 liter ice cream -favorite flavor- I vote for chocolate :)
1/4 cup jam -favorite flavor- I vote for berries :)
10 strawberries (cut in half)
3 kiwi (cut in slices)
3 cups of flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
8 eggs (I know?!)

This recipe is from the Golden Book of Baking. This book is a gift from my friend Samia, which has 300 gorgeous recipes with pictures! So you can visit me and make an order from the catalogue :)

The first step is to prepare the cakes. Preheat the oven to 350F. You will need 2 round (around 9 inch) cake pans. Butter and flour the pans and set aside. In a deep bowl, mix the butter sugar and vanilla, until creamy. Then add the eggs one at a time. I have no idea why it needs so many eggs... Mix the remaining dry ingredients -flour baking powder salt- in a separate bowl. Once the batter is smooth, slowly beat the dry ingredients in. Finally, divide the batter into the 2 prepared pans. Bake them for 25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. I chose to slightly underbake them because you carve out the middle part anyway, and I wanted the sides to remain soft (not dried out). Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes in their pans, then turn them onto a rack to cool completely.

Once they cooled, carve out the middle parts with a knife, leaving a 1 cm shell on the sides and the bottom. In the meantime, let the ice cream warm up and soften for 10 minutes. Then fill the holes of the cakes with the ice cream, and push firmly! I realized later that I needed to pack firmer, make sure you use all the space. Brush the cakes with jam (the circle around) and stick the two together, ice-cream packings facing each other. Wrap the cake firmly with either plastic wrap or foil and freeze overnight. I hate this, you have to wait..

Next day, brush the top of the cake with the remaining jam and stick the kiwi slices and the strawberries. Serve immediately! Isn't it good?

The only problem is: The cake needs to return to the freezer after each serving.. But in the later rounds the fruits on top take too long to defrost and the ice cream starts melting. So I think it would be better if you could bake this cake for a dinner party -so that it would be all gone at once!

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