High Altitude Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes
Boston cream pie cupcakes, made with fluffy vanilla cupcakes, filled with vanilla bean custard, and topped with chocolate buttercream and chocolate ganache drip.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Standard-Sized Muffin Pan
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Vanilla Custard
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 large egg yolks (save the whites for another use)
- ½ tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
Vanilla Cupcakes
- 1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ½ cup melted butter or vegetable oil
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Buttercream
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- ½ tbsp meringue powder (optional)
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 tbsp milk or cream, only if needed
Chocolate Drip
- 2 oz heavy whipping cream
- 2 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped
Instructions
Make the custard.
- In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar and corn starch. Whisk in the egg yolks, milk and vanilla bean paste.
- Over medium heat, whisk the custard constantly and bring it to a boil. It should take about 8-12 minutes of whisking before it begins to boil and thicken. Once this happens, continue to cook, whisking constantly, for 1 full minute, until the custard is very thick.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter until smooth. Pour the custard through a mesh strainer to remove any bits of cooked egg. Take a piece of plastic wrap and press it right against the hot custard. Refrigerate the custard for several hours, until thoroughly chilled, before filling the cupcakes.
Bake the cupcakes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line your muffin pan/s with 15 paper liners.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder, then whisk until everything is well distributed.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and whisk just until combined.
- Divide the batter between the paper liners, filling them no more than 2/3 - 3/4 full.
- Bake the cupcakes on the center oven rack for about 18 minutes, until the centers of the cupcakes spring back when gently touched, or a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool the cupcakes in the pans for several minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before filling with the custard.
- Use a cupcake corer to remove the centers of the cooled cupcakes. Fit a piping bag with a medium round tip, and fill with the chilled vanilla custard. Pipe the custard into the cupcakes.
Frost with the buttercream.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, combine the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, meringue powder and salt. With the mixer running on low, add the powdered sugar mixture by spoonfuls to the butter, mixing just until combined. The buttercream will be clumpy at this point.
- Add the vanilla, and increase the speed to medium. Whip the buttercream for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl several times, until very light and fluffy, adding the milk only as needed for desired consistency.
- Fit a piping bag with a large piping tip (I used tip 2D, but 1M is another favorite of mine), and fill with the buttercream. Pipe tall mounds of buttercream onto the filled cupcakes.
Finish with the chocolate ganache drip.
- In a small saucepan over medium low heat, combine the cream and chopped chocolate. Warm the mixture gently, stirring constantly with a spatula, just until smooth and melted. Remove from the heat.
- While the ganache is warm, use a spoon to spoon it on top of the frosted cupcakes, letting it drip down the buttercream a little. The ganache will firm and set into a fudge-like consistency in about an hour.
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