.boston cream cupcakes.

Earlier last month, the girls and I surprised my husband with a trip to Boston for his birthday. It's only a 3 hour drive from here and while I've been once, I didn't get to do any sightseeing because I was there for work. We had the greatest time seeing all the sites. We went to the New England Aquarium, walked the Freedom Trail, shopped at the Farmer's Market, saw street performers, and ate lots of lobster. It was a fabulous vacation!

Since taking that trip, I have had a hankering for Boston Cream Pie, but I wanted to change it up a bit and make it a cupcake instead of a cake (it really is a cake even though they call it a pie). Boston Cream Pie is really a yellow butter cake filled with pastry cream, then topped with chocolate ganache. So delicious. So decadent. So fattening (but it's okay to indulge every now and then!).

You want to start by making your pastry cream.

2 cups Milk

1 tsp vanilla

5 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 Tbsp butter

pinch of salt

In a saucepan put 1 3/4 cups milk and sugar. Bring to boiling point but do not let boil; set aside. In a bowl, mix together the yolks, the remaining milk, and the flour and salt; mix well. While whisking, temper the yolks by slowly pouring the hot milk into the egg/flour/milk mixture. You don't need to add all the hot milk. About 3/4 cup.

Pour the tempered yolks/milk back into the saucepan and put over medium high heat.

Whisk constantly until the sauce has thickened. Remove from the heat and add

the butter and vanilla.

Put the saucepan in a ice bath to cool down the pastry cream. Make sure you stir this occasionally as it cools so it doesn't form a skin on the surface.

**NOTE: Pastry Cream can be made a day or two ahead of time and kept in the fridge in an airtight container.

How we want to make the cupcakes. If you're in a hurry, you can use a boxed yellow cake mix. I prefer cake from scratch. Here's the recipe I used:

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, beating well between each addition. Mix in the vanilla, salt, and baking powder.

Alternating, add the milk and flour until well mixed.

Fill each cupcake mold 3/4 the way up. Put in a preheated 350* F oven for about 20 minutes.

The tops should be slightly domed and lightly golden. Remove from the oven when a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the muffin pan and cool on a wire rack.

When the cupcakes are cooled, use a knife and cut out the center top of each cupcake. Spoon in a small dollop of pastry cream (I used a mounded teaspoonful).

Top with chocolate ganache (recipe) and put in the fridge to set.

This recipe made 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes.