Boston Cream Pie

Despite the name, Boston Cream Pie isn't a pie. It's two, airy milk sponge cakes sandwiching a fat layer of custard, with a dribbling layer of chocolate ganache to seal the deal.

The Boston Cream Pie was first created by an Armenian-French chef at a hotel in Boston nearly 150 years ago. There’s nothing ‘pie’ about it, with two layers of milk sponge cake sandwiching a thick layer of custard. The dark chocolate ganache on top adds reflex to the tame sweetness of the cake, it really works, even if you’re not a dark or a plain chocolate fan. Boston Cream Pie is a soft, ethereal eating experience, reminiscent of a chocolate éclair, but nowhere near as fiddly as that. The reason I wanted to teach you this recipe is to introduce you to this particular style of sponge cake. There’s no creaming butter and sugar, and it produces a sponge cake that doesn’t take over - it’s not too sweet. There’s a particular method I use that creates a super-stable sponge cake that’s full of air and has no risk of collapse. I could say it’s ‘unsinkable’, but that words hasn’t done favours for anybody in the past. Anyways, let’s go!