Boston Cream Cupcakes

There was a run on cupcakes this past week at my house. These Boston Cream Cupcakes were the undoing of me, though. There’ll be no more cupcakes for a while.

While I don’t remember eating Boston cream cake when younger, Pink Rose Pastry Shop in Philadelphia has remedied that omission in my life. I love Boston cream cake. A white or yellow cake with chocolate icing is my favorite kind. The cream is an added bonus that I’ve taken to with little arm-twisting.

Thanks to a Cook’s Illustrated double subscription snafu, we’ve been receiving Cook’s Country, a cooking magazine by the same editors of Cook’s Illustrated. Cook’s Country uses the same recipe testing approach that Cook’s Illustrated uses, only with more homey recipes. Every thing I’ve cooked out of Cook’s Illustrated has been golden, so when I saw a picture of my cupcake fantasy (Boston cream cupcakes) in Cook’s Country, I needed a reason to justify making them. Weekend cookout? I’m there. With cupcakes!

Three-part cupcakes – cake, filling, icing – are major pains in the asses to make. I did this last year, and complained then, too. Last year, I hollowed out miniature cupcakes to fill and ice. I thought working with larger cupcakes would be better. Not really. I spent over three hours in the kitchen making these cupcakes. Once a year! Filling cupcakes will only happen once a year – and you better be getting married or something else grand. (Exception: The black bottom cupcakes made earlier this week are pain-free – in and out of the kitchen in 30 minutes.)

I wanted to print the recipe for Boston cream cupcakes to share, because I was so excited about them, but I found the cake and cream components less than perfect. I would not put you through three hours of baking and assemblage with this recipe. Instead, I’d suggest using your favorite white cake, pastry cream, and ganache recipe to create these cupcakes. Getting the filling inside is done by cutting a cone from the top of the cupcake, hollowing the inside out a little, filling the cupcake with cream, cutting the tip of the cone off, and placing what, now, looks like a lid on top of the cupcake.

These cupcakes were very tasty, and not one was left at the end of the night, but they were not perfect. The cake sank after baking, and was too dense. The cream looked promising, but was not as velvety as expected. I’m sure pastry cream is something that needs to be mastered. I did not achieve mastery. Hopefully, there’s a more fool-proof pastry cream recipe out there. The ganache was simple. Ganache always is.

Unfortunately, the cupcake marathon ended on a slightly down note. Not what I wanted. Take this idea and run with it. I won’t be filling any cupcakes until next year.