Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

Yup, I have decided to take up this quest to bake a few recipes from Marha Stewarts' Cupcake book. The invitation came from a fellow blogger and a group called http://friendswhobake.blogspot.com. The last time I tried Martha's recipe when I first started baking, and I used the same measuring cup for liquid and flour..........of course what was supposed to become banana caramel cake turned out like bengkang, ha ha! After that I have never tried Martha's recipe anymore.

One of the reason is mainly the measuring that she uses, or for most Americans in their baking...err 1 stick of butter, 1 tablespoon...so for this challenge, I made sure that my conversion is as accurate as possible, to avoid another bengkang like cake ! And, the result, what can I say, LUXURIOUS!! Of course me being me, and being creative maybe at the wrong time and place I tweaked the recipe a bit, but hey, after all said and done and the cakes were ready, DH couldn't stop taking his hands off the little gems...I decided to bake mine in mini muffin tins, so the batter gave about 48 mini cakes. I couldn't slice the cakes and slot the vanilla pastry cream in between, so, I slathered them on top of the cakes instead and pour the chocolate ganache after that. And the idea is to pop the entire cake at one go so you can taste the cake, vanilla pastry cream and chocolate ganache all at the same time!

I realise most American recipes are a bit on the sweetish side, so I reduced my sugar, and omitted the corn syrup in the ganache totally. I used half and half Herscheys semisweet chocolate chips and Valrhona chocolate buttons, so the ganache was chocolaty and bitter at the same time.....mmmmm, I love it! I posted the above picture in FB and had three friends came over to sample the little gems! And they want MORE! Okay lepas ni buat sendiri ye! Resepinya di bawah.....

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes
6 tablespoon (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, I used 110g SCS butter....mmm sedap you!
[butter conversion 4 oz=125g=1 stick, 8oz=250g=1 cup]
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar, I used 3/4 cup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170C, prepare muffin tins by brushing with butter. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Combine butter and milk in a saucepan, set over very low heat.

With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk egg and sugar until fluffy, pale yellow and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds (macam nenek kita dulu-dulu pukui telorq nak buat bahulu!) when lifted, about 5 minutes. Gradually add flour mixture.

Bring milk and butter to boil. With low speed mixer add hot milk mixture in a slow, steady stream, mix until smooth (do not over mix), beat in vanilla.

Divide batter evenly amongst prepared tin, bake until golden yellow, let cool.

To finish, user a serrated knife to split the cupcakes horizontally. spread 1 tablespoon pastry cream on the bottom of each cupcake, replace top halves (I omitted this as I had mine in mini muffin tins!). Spoon about 1 tablespoon chocolate glaze over each cupcake, refrigerate 30 minutes before serving.

Vanilla Pastry Cream
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar, I used 1/4 cup
1/4 cup cornflour
pinch of salt
1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Whisk yolk until smooth in a large bowl. Combine sugar, cornflour and salt in a medium saucepan and heat over medium. Stirring constantly gradually add milk in a slow steady stream and cook until mixture thickens and begin to bubble about 5 minutes.

Whisking constantly, slowly pour 1/3 milk mixture into egg yolk, pour this mixture into the remaining mixture in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until full boil and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla.

Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a heat prove bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, to prevent a skin from forming. Set to cool and refrigerate. I prepared mine while waiting for the cupcakes to cook!

Chocolate Ganache Glaze
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate finely chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Heat the heavy cream on medium fire until almost boiling point, remove. Add in the chocolate and stir constantly until all smooth, add the corn syrup.

Wulla, happy baking!