When it was time to bake something for my best friend Sue's birthday, I couldn't decide what to make - something light, like chiffon cake? Or some other kind of cake? Then I remembered that she loves boston cream pie, so I decided to make her a boston cream pie cake!
I found this recipe on Everyday Food that I decided to use. Except I wanted to make a small 6-inch version (the last birthday cake that I made for Sue was ice cream cake and it stayed in her freezer for like 3 months before she finished it!) So instead of making one 9-inch cake and then cutting it in half horizontally like the recipe says, I made two 6-inch cake layers and tried to adjust the baking time accordingly.
Also I wanted to make it look more like a birthday cake than the traditional ganache-glazed boston cream pie, so I used this recipe for the chocolate ganache and whipped it so that I could pipe with it (I also added 1 cup of powdered sugar to sweeten it a bit and make it more like frosting).
In the end though, I wasn't satisfied with the cake. Even though all the components for boston cream pie were there, it just tasted like a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I thought that it needed more pastry cream, and the cake was not as moist as I wanted it - I probably need to make more adjustments to my baking time for the 6-inch pans, as I only decreased the time by 5 minutes.
Despite the flaws, hopefully she enjoyed the cake anyway. Happy Birthday Sue!!! We love you!!!
