When I was a kid my two favourite treats were napoleons from the bakery, and boston cream doughnuts from the doughnut shops. Both are custard filled desserts so I guess you can say I really love my custard haha!
When my kids were younger I used to make this cake often, but it’s been a while since I made it and figured I’d share it with you today.
Plan this ahead so you don’t rush, as both custard and cakes need to be cool before assembling.
You can make this with a cake mix or use your favourite vanilla cake recipe.
For the pastry cream you will need:
2 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup corn starch
2/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp butter
vanilla bean or 1 pkt vanilla sugar
In a pot, heat the milk until hot, meanwhile in a mixing bowl or measuring cup whisk together the yolks and sugar, add in the cornstarch and mix with a whisk until nicely combined. Take a vanilla bean pod and scrape a little bit off and add that to the custard, if you don’t have any you can use vanilla sugar.
Temper the egg and sugar mixture by adding a few ladles of hot milk, stirring with a whisk. Then pour the mixture into the pot with the rest of the hot milk.
Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn on the bottom. It will start to thicken up in a few minutes. Once it stops bubbling, it is done; it should be thick custard. Add the butter, and once it melts stir it in. Transfer to a bowl, and when it is still warm but not hot cover with plastic wrap directly on the custard.
Refrigerate until cold and firm.
Bake your cake, follow instructions on cake mix or bake homemade vanilla cake in two 8 inch cakes pans. Make sure to grease the pans well and use parchment paper for the bottom for easy removal of cake.
Cool cakes down, and once they are cool, add one cake down on your platter and transfer the custard on top ( I just flip the custard over from the bowl), then add the other layer of cake on top and refrigerate until you’ve made your ganache.
For the ganache, you should use whipping cream (35%) but if you don’t have any, 10% half and half works fine for this as a topping.
When making ganache, you need a 1:1 ratio of cream to chocolate. So if you are using 1 cup cream, use 1 cup chocolate. I use semi sweet chocolate chips for my ganache but you can use whatever chocolate you have.
You won’t need a cup worth of ganache for this, so I would say use 1/2 cup of each cream and chocolate.
Heat the cream in a double boiler, once its hot add in the chocolate and stir until fully combined.
If you don’t have any kind of cream, you can use cool whip as well. Melt down 2 cups of cool whip and stir in 4 oz of chocolate. I have done this many times it works out great.
Now that you have your ganache, pour it over the cake and spread with a spoon until it reaches the edges.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
It’s best served the same day as custard will crack, but if you want to hide that, whip some 35% cream with a little icing sugar or use frosting and ice the edges to close up the gap and spread the ganache later on.