Although Memorial Day Weekend was full of chill and drear, the week leading up to it was marked by a drier weather pattern but enough cloud cover remained that we enjoyed but partial sun, all the while feeling the almost chilly stiff breezes that remained constant. It knocked some of the sheen off of spring's joyous outside time, and last Wednesday I let that redirect some of my energies to an indulgent kitchen endeavor: Boston Cream Pie.
I'm definitely a fan, but its rare appearance as a featured dessert here might suggest otherwise. (You know that I just searched the entries here, and I see a blog post from September 2017, and another all the way back to Meal No. 72 in 2010...and that is it.) Perhaps my memory of making it more often comes from the days with the old/original kitchen, pre-2008, which is also before I started the house blog (and making such a thorough and specific record here!).
This is not only the third recorded time I've made it, since the kitchen replacement was completed in 2009, but it's now also the third recipe I've used for it. The folks at King Arthur Baking offer an approach to a tasty single-layer classic yellow cake, with a wonderful fudgy frosting, that I made just once before, not quite four years ago. The notes at the bottom of the King Arthur recipe suggest it can be easily turned into a Boston Cream Pie, with either pastry cream or vanilla pudding.
Well, since the historical record contained within this blog also indicated that I had gone about 10 months without making a batch of vanilla pudding, it was obviously time to break the dry spell, especially since the preceding Monday was National Vanilla Pudding Day. I had heavy cream to use up and thought I'd give that a go as a primary ingredient, which is how I learned what a problem its high fat content presents for a sweet cooked concoction like this...but with enough whisking while it was cooling down, I mostly reincoporated it all into a tasty smoothness. I included a boost of tapioca starch to increase its sturdiness, just so it might work more favorably as the filling in this special cake.
This was a dessert that violated my normal sharing norms: all of it was kept for the enjoyment strictly of the household, except for two pieces for the ladies when they came to clean...and that included the final oversized piece that stood in place of supper Friday night, strategically positioned so that the full measure cannot be taken of the huge extra dollop of the last of the vanilla bean pudding.
"Classic Yellow Cake with Fudge Frosting," from the bakers at King Arthur Flour.
"Vanilla Pudding," from the Food Network Kitchens.
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