Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

 How my cupcake looked after my second try to put in the box for my boyfriend's birthday. It has a swirl of vanilla buttercream on top, and then I covered it in dark chocolate letting it drip down the sides.

Hi. For my first post I wanted to share my Boston Cream pie cupcake recipe. These cupcakes were only a practise of the recipe, I think I might change the fudge cake to chocolate cake to give the cake extra lightness because the fudge cake was quite heavy. I will be baking six different American inspired cupcakes to go in a cupcake box for my boyfriend's birthday. I was inspired by a dessert we had together at the Wave restaurant in Walt Disney World's Contemporary Hotel when we were there on holiday. It was a dessert celebrating American flavours, and that's what I hope to do with my cupcakes for this project, because I know we won't be able to afford to go back to Walt Disney World for a while, having both just graduated from University, so I hope the cupcakes will remind him of the amazing memories we have there. The Boston Cream pie cupcakes will go with a Pecan Pie Cupcake, a Key Lime Pie cupcake, a Mississippi Pie cupcake, an Oreo cupcake and a Smore's cupcake.

Disney's the Wave dessert trios. American Flavours. Key Lime Cube with fresh Citrus Whipped Cream, Mississippi Mud Pie with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Boston Cream Pie.

Boston Cream Pie Inspired Cupcakes

Chocolate Fudge Cake Recipe (if you want a lighter cake, feel free to use a chocolate cake recipe)

Makes 20 Cupcakes

200ml Water

85 grams butter

85 grams caster sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

3 tbsp milk

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

225 grams plain flour

2 tbsp plain cocoa

1. Preheat Oven to  180'c/350F/Gas Mark 4.
2. Place the water, butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes turn the heat off and leave to cool.
3. Place the milk and vanilla extract into a bowl. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the milk and stir to dissolve. 
4. Sift the flour and cocoa into a separate bowl and add the cooled syrup mixture. Stir in the milk mixture and beat until smooth, then spoon the batter into paper cases.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until well risen and firm to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Ganache Topping

200 grams dark chocolate (I used 90% cocoa)

284 ml double cream

2 tbsp golden caster sugar

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl.
2. Pour cream into a pan and add the caster sugar.
3. Heat until it is just about to boil, where you can see small bubbles coming to the surface.
4. Take off the heat and add to the chopped chocolate.
5. Stir until the chocolate has melted and is smooth.

American Buttercream Frosting

This recipe yields quite a lot of frosting so if you aren't planning on frosting a lot of cupcakes halve the recipe.

227 grams butter

1/4 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)

512 grams icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp heavy cream

1. Beat the butter in a bowl until it is smooth. Add the salt if it's needed.
2. Add 128 grams of icing sugar then another 128 grams of icing sugar, beating after each.
3. Add vanilla or other flavours you might want to use.
4. Add 1 tbsp of cream and continue beating.
5. Add remaining icing sugar slowly, beating as you add it.
6. Add cream until you have a thick enough consistency for piping. 

Here I have two different ways of presenting my cupcakes. One is inspired by how a Boston cream pie looks, with the cream in the middle and the ganache covering the top and dripping down the sides. The other is a traditional cupcake design, with the buttercream frosting on top and the ganache dripped over the top. Both ways work as cupcakes, so I bet there are many other ways the Boston cream pie cupcake could be presented.

The finished box of American Flavours cupcakes.