Recipes

Beware the Boston Cream Pie

The photo might look impressive, but this cake proved a bit tricky

By Lisa Manfield /

Credit: Lisa Manfield

Trick photography: this cake isn’t quite as delicious as it looks

In the “what I made for dessert” category: the Boston Cream Pie.

A doozy of a dessert if you go by looks alone. This pie-cum-cake looks impressive, but I have to admit, it fell down a bit on first bite. My family raved about it, but I know the cake was a bit dry, and I should have known this before even making it.

That’s the thing about recipe-sharing sites, they’re full of inciteful comments that can be very helpful if you actually take the time to read them. Unfortunately, the picture of this Boston Cream Pie was so impressive I completely forget to check the helpful comments, most of which indicated the cake was rather dry. And it was. Were I to make this again, I’m not sure I’d go the boxed-cake route the commenters suggest, but I’d probably try to find a different cake recipe to substitute in. As it was, I simply served it with ice cream to provide a bit of sauciness on the plate.

It’s worth noting, though, that the chocolate frosting on this cake is absolutely divine. And if you should attempt this one and find the cake to be dry, by all means, toss the bottom half and just eat the topping.