Cake

• The basis for any Boston cream dessert is a basic yellow cake. The classic Boston cream pie calls for two layers of yellow cake.

  While the dessert is called a pie, it is actually a cake. The misnomer possibly could be traced back to the dessert's colonial past, when home cooks did not have access to a wide variety of baking pans. Home kitchens usually had several pie tins, which could be used for a variety of dishes, but few kept cake pans on hand. Anything baked in a pie pan was called a pie.

Pastry Cream

• The true star of Boston cream is the pastry cream filling. Pastry cream is a thick custard made of eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla. Spread a 1-inch layer of pastry cream on the bottom layer of cake, then top with the second layer. All layer cakes have some kind of filling between the layers, but Boston cream is unique in the fact that the filling is the highlight rather than the cake.

Glaze

• Boston cream pie is always topped with a dark chocolate ganache glaze made from bittersweet chocolate melted into hot cream. This cuts the sweetness of the cake and the pastry cream, and gives a complexity and depth to the dessert.

  Unlike a typical layer cake, the glaze is not intended to cover or hide the cake. Instead, it is poured or spooned over the top and allowed to drizzle down the sides, letting some of the cake and pastry cream peek through.

Variations

• Pastry chefs have developed many variations on the cake, pastry cream and chocolate glaze combination. Boston cream cupcakes are hollowed out, then filled with pastry cream and frosted with chocolate ganache. Boston cream doughnuts replace the cake portion with doughnut, which is filled with pastry cream and dipped in chocolate icing.