[Recipe] Boston Cream Cake
I’m posting this recipe by request of one of my friends who commented on my original Instagram share. I made this cake for my Mother in Law for Mother’s Day, which was yesterday in the UK. I wanted to make her something different from the normal Victoria sponge, and I had the week before done a Chocolate and Peanut Butter cake for my SIL, so I didn’t want to repeat flavours.
A lot of Americans will have heard about the Boston Cream Poke Cake, which is basically a box yellow cake mix, a box of yellow pudding, and a can of chocolate icing. You *could* make your cake this way in the UK as they now sell Betty Crocker mixes and sub custard for the pudding, but there’s something really satisfying about baking from scratch. Although I will say I did use a can of Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge icing, simply because I hate making icing. But by all means, use your favourite chocolate icing recipe!
You Will Need:
Your favourite standard cake recipe OR a box mix for a yellow/vanilla cake OR use my recipe below –
125g butter (or Stork)
125g sugar (caster is best for baking)
125g self rising flour
1tsp baking powder
2 large eggs (if you’re eggs aren’t particularly big, use 3)
1tsp vanilla
1 standard sized tin of custard OR one packet of instant custard OR about 400g homemade custard (if you’re in the US, use Vanilla Jell-O pudding)
1 tub of Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge icing OR your favourite chocolate icing recipe
50g chocolate chips
1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C and line 2 round cake tins with parchment paper* or butter and flour the tins, whichever you prefer or have handy.
2. Mix your cake. If you’re using a box mix, follow the instructions on the box. If you’re making one from scratch, start by sifting the flour and baking powder together in a small bowl and cream together the butter and sugar in a larger bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each egg, and add the vanilla. Then slowly mix in the flour.
3. Divide your cake evenly between the cake tins, and bake for 25-30 minutes (or follow the instructions on your box)
4. If you’re not using a tin of custard, now is the time to make it as you will want it to cool completely before you use it.
5. Take the cakes out of the oven and cool them in their tins for 10 minutes, then turned out onto a wire rack. Now, here is where you need to decide what to do – if you want your cakes to be gooey with custard, let them cool completely. If you want the to be moist, continue on.
6. Place your bottom layer on your plate and use the end of a wooden spoon to poke holes about 3/4 of the way through the cake. You don’t want the holes to go the whole way through.
7. Use half of the custard and slowly pour over the holes in the cake. If your cake is still warm, the custard will slowly get absorbed making the cake extra moist and giving it a slight custard flaour, but if you let the cakes cool first, the custard will fill the holes and be gooey and custardy when you eat it.
8. For the icing/chocolate bit: Melt 50g chocolate chips and stir it into your icing. This should thin out the icing a little and make it softer. Unless it’s the dead of winter and your kitchen is cold (like mine!), in which case you might want to microwave the icing for 30 minutes to soften it. Slowly pour enough chocolate icing on the top of the cake to just cover it just to the edge. Don’t worry if the custard and chocolate are combining together, that’s fine.
9. Add the top half, poke holes, and repeat step 7 and 8, using the rest of the icing to completely cover the cake so it drips down the sides. You could neaten this up with a knife if you want to, but I left it to drip down and then scooped up the excess and put it back on top. Again, don’t worry about the custard mixing itself in with the chocolate, the flavour will still be there. Because of the added chocolate chips, the icing will go slightly hard and shiny, like the chocolate topping on a Boston Cream doughnut from Dunkins!
TIP: Want cupcakes instead? I made these as cupcakes for an event and I used a cupcake corer to core the cupcakes, fill them with custard, add the top back on, and then put a spoonful of chocolate icing on top. This works best on cupcakes that don’t quite reach the rim of the paper liner so the chocolate doesn’t run off, so slightly underfill the cups.
My MIL, FIL, and husband all agreed this cake is very tasty!
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*A neat trick is to trace around the bottom of your pan onto the parchment paper, then cut out just inside your trace lines. It should give you the right size. I also help my parchment paper stick little by giving the tin a squirt of fry light.
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