This Week: Anything Boston

In an attempt to pump myself up for my trip to Boston next week, I am going to dedicate my next few posts to anything Boston-related. I'm not entirely certain what that will consist of, but I am certain that eating a Boston Cream Pie from Flying Star would be a nice place to start.

Despite what the name entails, Boston Cream Pie is actually a cake. The original recipe, also known as "American Pudding Cake", was often cooked in pie tins as cake pans were not so common in kitchens of the mid 1800's.

The Flying Star version of the alleged 'pie' consists of three layers of soft spongecake separated by velvety, vanilla custard, coated in chocolate icing and decorated with mini cream puffs filled with the vanilla custard and covered in caramel. It's a tall slice of cake and I'm afraid it may take me two sittings to tackle it. I'm surviving this economy on a sushi server's wage, so I'm not used to all this 'richness'. For me, it is a very rich cake, but for others, it's probably not too rich. Its a dessert that is perfect for enjoying an afternoon at a cafe watching the cars drive by on an adjacent street or in the kind of company that doesn't require endless conversation and encourages pauses of silence long enough to take a small bite and let the cake dissolve in your mouth.

Boston Cream Pie has the same kind of consistency of Tres Leches Cake, it's light and fluffy and has a very delicate flavor. Aside from the ganache on the 'pie', it has similar flavors–the cool cream has an easy-going vanilla flavor and the cake has a mellow taste. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of enjoying this cake, it is truly a delectable dessert. Tres Leches translates from Spanish to "three milks", as the original recipe is made with three kinds of milk– evaporated milk, sweetened-condensed milk and heavy cream. Though it may sound like a heavy dessert, the cake itself is usually a sponge cake or butter cake. The frosting is often made with the same milks used for soaking the cake. I'll have to make sure that I put some time aside to visit some places that have Massachusetts' state dessert.