I love Boston cream pie doughnuts. I eat them so much that I am starting to look like a doughnut around the middle.

I was watching Anna Olson’s cooking show the other night, when I saw her making Boston cream pie cake and seeing as I had her recipe book, I went in search of the recipe.

The recipe asked for corn syrup and since I didn’t have any, I actually had to make it from scratch… which I s bit time consuming since it has to be cooled, but it was so worth it.

However the recipe books makes the ganache using the corn syrup, but the television show shows the ganache being made without the corn syrup, but I think the corn syrup addition actually makes it nice and shiny and smooth and runny.

Ingredients for the cake:

• 1 x cup castor sugar.
• 175g x cake flour.
• 1 ¼ x tsp baking powder.
• ¼ x tsp salt.
• 115g x cooled unsalted butter, cut into cubes.
• 2 x eggs.
• ½ x cup milk.
• 2 x tsp vanilla essence.

Ingredients for the cream filling:

• ½ x cup whipping cream.
• ½ x cup milk.
• 1 x tsp vanilla essence.
• 3 x egg yolks.
• 3 x tbsp. castor sugar.
• 1 ½ x tbsp. corn starch.
• 30g x unsalted butter.

Ganache glaze:

• ½ x cup whipping cream.
• 120g x milk chocolate .
• 1 x tbsp. cooking oil.
• 1 x tbsp. corn syrup.

Method:

• Sift the sugar, cake flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl of your mixer.
• Add the butter cubes and using the paddle attachment, cut the butter into the flour until it resembles a crumb texture.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla essence.
• Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and beat on a low speed till everything comes together, then beat on a high speed until the batter is pale and thick roughly 10 – 15 minutes.
• Pour the batter into a greased 20cm cake pan and pop into a pre-heated oven.
• Bake at 180 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the cake tester comes out clean.
• Allow to cake to cool in the pan for 30 minutes, before turning out onto a cooling rack and allowing to cool completely.
• To make the cream filling, heat the cream and the milk in a sauce pan over a medium heat.
• Add the vanilla essence and mix, until the mixture to just start to simmer.
• In another bowl, whisk the eggs yolk, sugar and corn starch.
• While whisking, slowly pour over the hot milk mixture and whisk till well combined.
• Pour the entire mixture back into the sauce pan and return to the stove.
• Whisk constantly until the mixture becomes thick and glossy.
• Place the butter in a dish with a sieve balanced over it.
• Immediately pour the cream mixture through a sieve and using the back of a spoon, push the mixture through the sieve.
• Stir until the butter has melted.
• Allow to mixture to cool slightly, then place a piece of cling wrap on the surface of the mixture, this prevents a skin from forming.

To make the ganache:

• Heat the cream, till it just starts to simmer.
• Pour it over your milk chocolate disks and stir until well combined.
• Add the corn syrup and oil and mix well.
• Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.

To assembly the cake:

• Cut the cake into two layers, place one layer down on your cake stand.
• Add the cream filling and evenly spread over the center.
• Place the second layer on the top of the cream mixture.
• Pour the ganache over the top of the cake and using an offset spatula spread the ganache over the top.

• Pop into the fridge to chill till the ganache has set.