B is for Boston...Cream Pie!

For the past few weeks my mind has been plagued with making graduate school decisions. Where I want to go, where I don't, and sending out many letters with these decisions. It hasn't been very easy, as all these decisions entail leaving my loved ones and everything that is familiar to me. At the same time, I feel a sense of excitement when I think about all the goods things that await me, no matter where I'll be. And in the past few days, the school that I applied to in Boston has definitely been the frontrunner. It's a great school in a great place, and when my dad and I went to visit I loved everything about it: the history, Irish pubs on every corner, and the beautiful harbor. So, in honor of my (maybe) new home in the fall, I made Boston Cream Pie!

I found this recipe on a Paula Deen forum, adapted from a Paula Deen recipe for BCP cupcakes

Ingredients

-1 box of yellow cake mix, 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream, 1 small box of instant vanilla pudding mix, 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup sour cream

Chocatate Ganache:

-6 1 oz. squares of bittersweet chocate, 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream, 2 cups confectioners sugar

Directions:

1. Mix and bake 2 round cakes according to directions on the box. Cool completely.2. In a large bowl mix together pudding, whipping cream, sugar, milk and sour cream. Beat at medium speed until you get stiff peaks. Consitency shoud be that of thick pudding.

3. Cut top off one of cakes to get flat surface. Cover top of cut cake with filling and put second cake on top.

4. Make the chocolate ganache: use double boiler and melt chocate and cream together. Stir regularly so chocolate won't burn. Once smooth whisk in sugar and continue until smooth. Put ganache in fridge until it is spreadable consistency (about 30 mins)

5. Spread ganache on cake and store in fridge.

This was surprisingly easy to make! My only issue was that the second cake, the one on the top, craked in the middle when I placed it on there, but that's something I think I could have fixed with a different kind of cake mix (maybe less moist) or more careful handling. The amount of chocolate ganache the recipe made was also a bit more than I expected, but when we ate the dessert it wasn't overpowered by chocolate. In all, a very successful venture. Now if only understanding Boston accents was as easy...