I don’t even know where to begin.
Let’s start with my baking confidence… it’s pretty much at an all-time low right about now. And that is not a good thing. This dish caused not one, not two, but three baking mishaps. I think that’s a new record for me.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning.
My heart was in the right place. My folks were coming over to watch the boys (date night!) and I wanted to make my dad his favorite dessert for a belated birthday present. He adores Boston Cream Pie, so I thought, why not?
I started out making the actual cakes. I found a recipe through google (Note to self: not a good plan, unless I know the cook or it’s rated highly. Lesson learned. Lesson whacked up side my head. Lesson shoved down my throat.)
(Anyways, I won’t be sharing the recipe or any of the others, as I do not recommend them.)
So, I mixed up the batter, added it to my wax-lined cake pans (as suggested), and placed them in the oven to bake. I checked on them about 5 minutes early, and my toothpick came back clean. I took the pans out and set them aside to cool.
After the cooled, I went to take them out. And, instead of two soft, spongy, light cakes, I had two hard, crispy, cookie-like disks. If that wasn’t frustrating enough, the wax paper had melted to the bottom of the cakes. Awesome.
Boston Cream Pie Gods: 1, Courtney: 0
You would think this would’ve been a sign to stop. But nowadays, I’m a fighter in the kitchen. I wasn’t going to give up so easily. And I figured my dad would really know it was my cooking, with a crispy cake instead of the soft one.
And so, I moved on to the custard. And stupid me, I decided to work on while I was cooking my Tuscan dinner. Not the brightest move.
I cooked my custard according to the recipe I found – from the same place as the cakes. What was I thinking?? When I went to add my egg yolks…they, um, kinda cooked a bit…
And yet still, I forged on. I placed the custard into fridge to cool.
After it cooled, I went to dump it on one of the cakes. And it came out… in one BIG lump of gelatinous goop. I could’ve cut it with a knife and served it in slices, I swear.
Boston Cream Pie Gods: 2, Courtney: 0
This is the point where I might have cried a little bit. I was overly stressed from the dinner cooking, the cake issues, and now this custard lump.
Hubby was so supportive, after he got over being amused at my issues (yes, he did laugh at me, but in doing so, he helped me learn to laugh at myself). He took out his tried and true Boston Cream Pie recipe and said he’d help me re-make the whole thing.
I was kind of over it at this point, so he basically did all the work for the cake and custard. I was ready, though, to step up for the chocolate topping.
I thought for sure, with the already-tested and trusted recipe, nothing could go wrong. And I could still at least tell my dad that I helped make his cake, even if it was just the topping.
So, I followed the recipe exactly. Word-for-word.
And my shaved chocolate pieces would not melt. They just sat in the pan in little clumps. I did not take a picture because I was not a happy camper. At all.
Boston Cream Pie Gods: 3, Courtney: 0
Thank goodness Hubs was around, because he knew some tricks to fix it and make it work. And he did.
So we had a cake to give to my dad…but here’s the last hilarious part…
It slid apart before serving.
Seriously, at this point, all we could do was just laugh.
And dig in.
At least it still tasted good!
You are so funny!Bottom line is it looks delicious and you have an amazing husband!
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Well I think it looks delicious and all that matters is it tasted good!!
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That’s funny, love reading your baking mishap! This still looks delicious! Thank you Courtney for stopping by my blog & for your kind words 🙂
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This is hilarious, and makes me feel better about my own Boston Creme Pie failure. Our biggest struggle (and there were many) was getting the cakes out of the cake pans to cool. We pieced it together like a puzzle and then attempted to cover our mistakes with chocolate. Naturally all this failed effort was for a boy’s birthday…
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Sounds like quite the process, but I’m so proud of you for sticking through it! Still looks delicious, and I’m glad it tasted great as well. 🙂 Boston cream pie is my dad’s favorite dessert too. My mom has made it for him a few times, but we’ve yet to find the perfect recipe. I’ll let you know if I stumble across one!
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Oh no! But if it was edible and tasty, it wasn’t a total loss. I’d still have two pieces. I mean out of the kindness of my heart, ha!
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You know, some of my biggest cake disasters have been with Boston Cream Pie. Such a simple dessert and yet it has beat me a number of times as well. I used one from Gale Gand and it instructed me to beat it for what seemed like an eternity and just as I suspected, the cake came out a little tough.My mom says she has a tried and true one as well. Maybe I’ll try it sometime.
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LOL! I know i shouldnt be laughing, but you were really funny with your “boston cream pie gods” I guess bad recipes and bad days just happen even to the best of us! At least your husband is around to perform recovery plans!
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Oh poor thing…I can feel the frustration of the whole ordeal. But what a trooper! I’m sure that your dad loved it. If I was there, I would want a slice.
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God gives us culinary disaster days so we have funny stories to tell! I laughed out loud! Not at you, but because I can relate to your feelings. My tag line on StoneGable is “domestic adventures and antics”. You had an antic… Thanks for sharing your cute story at ON THE MENU MONDAY!
Yvonne
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Gee, maybe I don’t wanna try making a boston creme pie…because my luck sounds an awful lot like yours!
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Cullinary Gods vs. Courtney score keeper = hilarious. I would’ve quit after the first failure..way to go for sticking with it.
hi from mamak’s
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That is too funny, but in your defense, those things are hard to do! Eggs are fickle when not tempered and chocolate is really hard to melt! I’m glad it came out though (it still looks like it tasted good!). Thank you so much for linking this up to Fat Camp Friday! I couldn’t find a contact button for you, so just in case you are not subscribed to replies, you can find my html button box here.
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Aww! This is why I don’t bake. 😉
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If it tasted good…. the who cares!! I’ve never made a Boston Cream Pie… and I live in the Boston area… I should probably make one huh?
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I think the fact that it tasted good is a huge achievement even if it didn’t look like it should. I’ll have to link back to you in the post I’m about to put up (maybe next week) of the layar cake disasters I’ve been having. Despite the You Tube videos and other bloggers insistence – they are REALLY hard! And you should be proud of your efforts 🙂
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