Boston Cream Pie

by
  3.6 – 20 reviews  • Chocolate Pie
Level: Intermediate
Total: 1 hr 36 min
Prep: 15 min
Inactive: 6 min
Cook: 1 hr 15 min
Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients

  1. 7 eggs, separated
  2. 8 ounces sugar
  3. 1 cup flour
  4. 1 ounce melted butter
  5. 1 tablespoon butter
  6. 2 cups milk
  7. 2 cups light cream
  8. 1/2 cup sugar
  9. 3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
  10. 6 eggs
  11. 1 teaspoon dark rum
  12. 6 ounces fondant
  13. 3 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
  14. 5 ounces fondant
  15. 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
  16. 2 ounces warm water
  17. 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  18. 1 teaspoon corn syrup
  19. 1 tablespoon water
  20. 4 ounces toasted almonds

Instructions

  1. For Sponge Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In two bowls, separate egg yolks, and whites. Add 1/2 of the sugar to each bowl. Beat both until peaked. When stiff, fold the whites into the yolk mixture. Gradually add flour, mixing with a wooden spatula. Mix in the butter. Pour this mixture into a 10 inch greased cake pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until spongy and golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool firmly.
  3. For Pastry Cream: In a saucepan bring the butter, milk, and light cream to a boil. While this mixture is cooking, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and eggs in a bowl and whip until ribbons form.
  4. When the cream, milk, butter mixture reaches the boiling point, whisk in the egg mixture and cook to boiling. Boil for 1 minute. Pour into a bowl and cover the surface with plastic warp. Chill overnight if possible. When chilled, whisk to smooth out and flavor with 1 teaspoon dark rum.
  5. For Chocolate Fondant Icing: Warm 6 ounces of fondant over boiling water to approximately 105 degrees. Add melted chocolate. Thin to spreading consistency with water.
  6. For White Fondant Icing: Warm 5 ounces of fondant over boiling water to approximately 105 degrees F. Thin with water if necessary. Place in a piping bag with a 1/8-inch tip.
  7. Chocolate Icing: Melt chocolate. Combine with warm water.
  8. White Icing: Combine ingredients and warm to approximately 105 degrees F. Adjust the consistency with water. It should flow freely from the pastry bag.
  9. To Finish: Level the sponge cake off at the top using a slicing knife. Cut the cake into 2 layers. Spread the pastry cream over 1 layer. Top with the second cake layer. Reserve a small amount of the pastry cream to spread on sides, to let the almond stick. Spread a thin layer of chocolate fondant icing on the top of the cake. Follow immediately with spiral lines starting from the center of the cake, using the white fondant in the pastry bag. Score the white lines with the point of a paring knife, starting at the center and pulling outward to the edge. Spread sides of the cake with a thin coating of the reserved pastry cream. Press on toasted almonds.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 of 10 servings
Calories 819
Total Fat 39 g
Saturated Fat 19 g
Carbohydrates 109 g
Dietary Fiber 3 g
Sugar 91 g
Protein 14 g
Cholesterol 275 mg
Sodium 182 mg

Reviews

Christopher Ross
Had Boston cream pie at th Omni Hotel in Boston. Did not meet my expectations. I think because I had eaten it so many places and made it myself over so many years.  the best version I had was at an old restaurant in Boston Marketplace. Wish I could remember the name. Parker House rolls were amazing though….
Dustin Leon
I am “reviewing” this mainly to comment on discussion over whether the recipe is “wrong” and that the custard/pastry cream should only contain egg yolks, not whole eggs as mentioned.   You can find on youtube a video named “Omni Parker House Original Boston Cream Pie” which should settle this discussion.  At the 3:12 mark, the chef at the Parker House discusses the pastry cream ingredients, and he clearly refers to using “whole eggs”, not egg yolks.
Ryan Lucero
I only used the cake recipe, so that is what I rated, and it turned out well. I used a different pastry cream recipe and lightened it a bit with 1/2 c. whipped cream. I also made a simple ganache (8 oz. chocolate chips and 1/2 c. heavy cream) instead of the fondant in this recipe. The chef in the video that demonstrates the original recipe from the Boston hotel does not use fondant. My version of Boston Cream Pie was delicious!
Eric Camacho
The sponge cake turned out really nice, good texture and light. The cream filling was awful, runny and very smelly…not at all appetizing. Wish I had read the first comment before starting this recipe then I wouldn’t have wasted all those ingredients!
Caleb Andrews DVM
Unfortunately, I failed to really study these reviews before jumping into this recipe and the pastry cream I made was very runny since I used whole eggs (as the recipe stated instead of just the yolks. I beat the whole eggs for at least 10 minutes with my very powerful Hobart mixer and I sort of established ribbons but not like I am used to. Hope someone changes the recipe so just the yolks are used.

As far as the cake, it was fantastic. I have a new convection oven and the cake baked in 24 minutes. It came out very light and very moist. But, I really beat the separated eggs and they came out really well. As I was putting the batter into the cake pan, the lightness was really apparent. I think that is the key to making a perfect cake, as well as measuring out all the ingredients on a scale.

I love this recipe. It is the best Boston Cream Pie I have ever made, and, since my partner is from Boston and loves this pie, I have made many of them. This is the best!

Jerome Smith
This got rave reviews! The important thing here is to be exact with the ingredients (weigh the items that are in ounces. My cake baked for more than 20 minutes, probably more like 30 minutes, and came out perfectly spongy and light. Use a big saucepan for the pastry cream because it expands when it boils. It took a really long time for ribbons to form when whipping my pastry cream but it was worth the wait. I used chocolate icing instead of fondant and it looked great (and tasted amazing!. This is the perfect Boston Cream Pie recipe!
Brandy Nash
The sponge cake didn’t come out the way I expected, but the pastry cream was very very good, this pastry cream recipe I will keep: I like airy, light sponge cake but the cake from this recipe came out heavy and rubbery, I have a better sponge cake recipe than this one.
Mr. Michael Smith
Cake was so bad out of the oven that I never got to make the pie. It was heavy and rubbery. Much better recipes are found elsewhere.
Michael Thompson
First off, I WANT TO THANK THE OTHER REVIEWERS. Because of them, I made a wonderful cake. Bless you all.

I would like to encourage everyone to get out the food scale when measuring out the sugar and the butter. A cup of sugar is not 8 oz, as called for in the receipe. Likewise for the butter measurement.

I took reviewer’s comments about “blandness” and took their advise. I added a teaspoon of vanilla to the cake batter. Yum. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla and an ounce of rum to the custard. You can also add more rum and vanilla to the chilled custard when you whip it up. These add-ins did not affect the consistancy of the cake. There is no reason for this cake to be flavorless.

David Carr
Let me start off by saying that I really only used this recipe for the sponge cake, because fondant doesn’t have a spectacular taste and I already had some awesome custard in my fridge from making a banana cream pie a few days prior.

Honestly though, I wish I hadn’t. The cake needs a lot more sugar, vanilla and some other type of liquid. What I tasted in the cake was a dry, bland product that couldn’t even be saved by the chocolate ganache and vanilla custard that sat along in it. If anything, I’d just use this recipe as a basis for how to make a boston cream pie and then use other recipes to substitute the separate parts. Hey, at least the custard and ganache tasted good?

 

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