Boston Cream Cupcakes

In my twist of the classic Boston Cream Pie, I filled light Two Egg Yellow Chiffon Cupcakes with creamy Vanilla Bean Custard and piped Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream on top. 

Ingredients:

• 24 Two Egg Yellow Chiffon Cupcakes, cooled
• 1 recipe Vanilla Bean Custard, refrigerated until set
• 1 recipe Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Take a small paring knife and core the each cupcake, leaving ¼ inch of cake on the bottom and about ½ an inch of cake on the sides. 

Fill the center of each cupcake with vanilla custard.  I found that using a small spoon and simply spooning in the custard works perfectly. 

Using a spatula, add the chocolate swiss meringue buttercream to a piping bag set with a large star tip.  Pipe the frosting on the cupcakes, starting at the edge and moving in a smooth, circular motion as you bring the tip above the center of each cupcake. 

Vanilla Bean Custard

This creamy, vanilla bean custard makes a nice filling in layer cakes or my Boston Cream Cupcakes. 

The custard is simple to make and thickens up nicely to support the weight of a cake layer.  It can also be eaten by itself or piped into chocolate cups for individual desserts.  

Chocolate Pudding Pie

A classic favorite – Chocolate Pudding Pie

Fresh whipped cream speckled with vanilla bean seeds contrasts nicely with the velvety, rich chocolate pudding in this chocolate pudding pie.  For this pie, you can vary the crust, using anything from a cookie crust (made with chocolate or vanilla wafers) to a normal pie crust.  For my version of this classic pie, I used a Pâte Sucrée, which is like a vanilla sugar cookie crust.