"Cheers" Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

“Cheers” Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

Yellow Cupcakes (makes nearly two dozen cupcakes)

1 cup unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs

3 cups sifted cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

In a mixer with a whip attachment, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Make the butter soft so it's easier to beat. I always forget to take things out ahead of time so I had to blast the butter in the microwave for a few seconds.

Add the sugar and continue to cream. Gradually add the vanilla and eggs and mix in well.

Combine together the dry ingredients; then mix into the butter mixture alternating with the milk. Sifting the 3 cups of cake flour was awful and took forever. I guess it didn't help that I first began sifting regular flour and then actually looked at the ingredients and saw that it was cake flour I was supposed to be sifting. Major fail! Luckily I was sifting it into a bowl by itself so it didn't mix with anything and I could just put the regular flour back in it's bag and start sifting the cake flour.

Pour batter into cupcake paper-lined muffin tins filling them 3/4 full. Bake until puffed and firm in the center and light golden brown on top, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Putting 2 ice cream scoops worth of batter in each liner I made 22 cupcakes. At 19 minutes I stuck a tooth pick in and it came out clean so I took the cupcakes out of the oven even though the tops of them weren't light golden brown.

Vanilla Custard Filling (makes way more than enough for two dozen cupcakes)

2pkg.  (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

2 cup cold milk

1 cup COOL Whip

Beat the pudding mix and milk with whisk 2 min. Let stand 5 min.

Stir 1 cup COOL WHIP into pudding

Fill a pastry bag to apply it to the cupcake for more control.

For some of the cupcakes I inserted the tip of the pastry bag to the center of the cupcake and squeezed some down in the middle. Other cupcakes I cut where the top of the cupcake meets the liner in half and added some cream to the bottom half of the cupcake and then just set the top of the cupcake on top of the cream. If you're going to serve them right away or don't need to transport them anywhere, you can take the entire liner off the cupcake when cutting it in half but because I was going to deliver some to other people I pulled just the very top of the liner down so it would still be protected when it slid around in the cake pan in the car. These could not be transported by putting them back into the muffin tin because it would be too hard to get them out again without ruining them.

Dark Chocolate Frosting (modified from MarthaStewart.com) (makes enough frosting for 30 cupcakes) (Also the same Dark Chocolate Frosting I used for the “Campfire Kansas” Smore cupcakes)

1/4 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon boiling water

2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1/8 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/8 teaspoon salt

¾ pounds best-quality semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

To melt the chocolate, I melted used a double boiler, which means I melted it in a bowl over a pan filled with water on a low-medium heat setting.

When boiling water, I was told that it is best to boil more water than needed and then measure out the correct out because boiling such a little amount of water is not food for the pan.

Combine cocoa and the boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter (it's best to break up the pieces using a fork and adding it instead of just putting a stick of butter in). Then add in and beat at the same speed the confectioners' sugar, and the salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low.

Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. (This tastes awesome!)

Beat in the cocoa mixture. (Don't taste the cocoa and water mixture because cocoa does not taste like everyday chocolate because it is bitter, but it tastes amazing after you beat it into the chocolate mixture!)

If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month, in an airtight container.

Before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

Frost the cupcake and add a dollop of the vanilla custard filling on top.

Thoughts on...

“Cheers” Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes:

Cupcake - This was the first time I made yellow cupcakes from scratch. While the cupcake tastes good, I still prefer the box mix to this recipe. You can definitely tell it is homemade.

Filling – The filling was awesome! Next time I think I'm going to cut all of the cupcakes in half or use the cone method to add the filling just so you can taste it more. The pastry bag tip inserted into the center didn't give me as much filling in the cupcake as I would like. I put a dollop of the filling on the very top of the frosting and that tasted great together. Perhaps next time I'll use more on the frosting too. This might be a good idea especially because there was so much filling left over. Luckily, since I still have the yellow cake mix and chocolate frosting I bought from the store, I can use the extra filling with those to make more Boston Cream Pie cupcakes.

Frosting – I used the same frosting for this cupcake as I did for the Smore cupcake. I'm in love with it's satiny finish and deep, dark chocolate taste. It works perfectly with the vanilla custard and doesn't overpower it like it does with the marshmallow. Chocolate makes Greg's mom stop breathing, so I frosted special ones for her where only the very center of the cupcake top had chocolate frosting. The contrast between the pale cupcake top, the chocolate frosting and the yellow vanilla dollop of the custard filling on top looked awesome.

My mom love dark chocolate with maple cream filling, and I think this frosting would work perfectly if I could make that into a cupcake some how. Now I just need to figure out how to make maple cream filling and decide what kind of cupcake to bake it in...

Beware – Dogs cannot resist the smell of these cupcakes! I brought both kinds of cupcakes over to Greg's parents house last night and when Greg's mom and I came back inside from a walk, the dogs knocked the container (a cake pan with a fastened lid) off of the counter and ate them all! Luckily we only brought them a few cupcakes and have more at our apartment to bring them so they can taste the deliciousness!

Overall Rating (1 – 10, 1 being “blech” and 10 being “YUUMMMMM!!!!”)

“Cheers” Boston Cream Pie Cupcake: 7

It tasted great all together, and separately the filling and frosting were amazing on their own but I still prefer yellow box cake mix to this yellow cupcake made from scratch.