Boston Cream Cupcakes Recipes

Steps:

• To make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer; add vanilla and eggs.
• Sift dry ingredients together and add in 3 stages, alternating with the buttermilk.
• Line muffin pans with paper liners.
• Fill each about three-quarters full with batter.
• Bake 15-20 minutes.
• To make pastry cream: Bring milk just to boil in medium saucepan.
• Whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch together in a bowl.
• Stir just a little of the hot milk into the egg mixture to equalize the temperatures.
• Add a little more hot milk to the egg mixture and stir well again.
• Then add all of the hot milk and stir.
• Return mixture to saucepan; whisk over low heat constantly until mixture becomes thick.
• Pour pastry cream into clean bowl and whisk in vanilla.
• Whisk in butter 1 ounce at a time until smooth.
• Cover surface with plastic wrap and chill until cool.
• Fold whipped cream into chilled pastry cream.
• To make chocolate glaze: Bring cream and corn syrup to boil.
• Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.
• Let hot cream sit on the chocolate for about 5 minutes.
• Stir until chocolate is dissolved and smooth.
• Stir in butter.
• To assemble: Fill pastry bag with pastry cream; poke tip of pastry bag into top of each cupcake and inject each with some pastry cream.
• OR slice each cupcake in half horizontally and spread some pastry cream in between layers.
• OR remove a cone-shaped section from center of cupcake, fill hole with pastry cream and then replace cake piece.
• Drizzle chocolate glaze over top of each cupcake.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a small bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition., Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15-20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely., Cut a small hole in the corner of a pastry bag; insert a small tip. Fill with pudding. Push the tip through the top to fill each cupcake., Place chocolate chips in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream just to a boil. Pour over chocolate; whisk until smooth. Cool, stirring occasionally, to room temperature or until ganache thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. Spoon over cupcakes. Let stand until set. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Steps:

• Prepare yellow cupcakes as directed on box.
• In the meantime, prepare the vanilla custard filling by combining the instant pudding mix the half and half in a medium bowl. In a stand mixer using the whip attachment, combine cream, vanilla and powdered sugar and whip at medium speed until soft peaks form. Gently fold in the pudding mixture to the whipped cream until it is fully incorporated and smooth. Place filling into a pastry bag fitted with a #21 (or standard star) tip.
• When the cupcakes have cooled, place the tip of the pastry bag inside each cupcake and pipe in filling, being careful not to overfill.
• When all the cupcakes have been filled, prepare your ganache.
• Combine the heavy cream and corn syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate; cover and let stand for 8 minutes. (If the chocolate has not completely melted, return the saucepan to low heat and stir constantly until melted.) Stir in the vanilla extract very gently until smooth. Cool the glaze until tepid so that a spoonful drizzled back into the pan mounds slightly. (You can refrigerate the glaze to speed up this process, stirring every few minutes to ensure even cooling.).
• Dip the tops of the cupcakes in the ganache. Place glazed cupcakes on a cooling rack to dry. Be sure to place wax paper or cookie sheet under rack as the ganache will drip.

Steps:

• Combine milk, instant pudding mix, and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Beat mixture with a hand mixer for 2 minutes, or until it thickens. Place mixture in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Spoon filling into a pastry bag fitted with a medium-size plain tip. Fill cupcakes with vanilla pudding filling by inserting tip into top of cupcake and squeezing a couple of tablespoons of filling into each cupcake.
• Heat cream in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat until bubbles appear around the edges. Remove from heat, add chocolate morsels to pan, and whisk until smooth. Spoon or drizzle glaze over cupcakes, or dunk the tops into the glaze. Refrigerate until set, at least 1 hour, before serving. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour standard muffin tins. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Warm milk and butter in a saucepan over low heat.
• Beat eggs and sugar with a mixer on high speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Beat in dry ingredients.
• Bring milk and butter to a boil. With mixer on low speed, add milk mixture to batter, and beat until smooth. Add vanilla. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each halfway. Bake cupcakes until light gold, about 15 minutes. Let cool in tins for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks. Let cool.
• Using a serrated knife, cut each in half horizontally. Spread 1 tablespoon vanilla cream on each cupcake bottom. Sandwich with top. Spoon glaze over each and serve immediately.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Spray 24 mini muffin cups with cooking spray.
• Stir yellow cake mix, water, eggs, and vegetable oil in a bowl until moistened. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes.
• Spoon cake batter into the prepared mini muffin cups, filling them about 2/3 full.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cupcakes have risen and are lightly golden brown, 15 to 19 minutes. Check for doneness after 10 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake should come out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool for about 20 minutes.
• Whisk instant French vanilla pudding mix and milk together in a bowl for 2 minutes. Allow pudding to stand for 5 more minutes to thicken.
• Pipe the vanilla pudding into each cupcake with about 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla pudding.
• Freeze filled cupcakes for at least 1 hour to make frosting them easier.
• Spread a very thin coating of chocolate frosting over each cupcake; refrigerate cupcakes for 15 minutes.
• Spread second, thicker layer of frosting over the first layer. Place small dollop of whipped cream into center of each frosted cupcake and top with a quarter of a maraschino cherry. Refrigerate mini cupcakes until serving time.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Generously grease 48 mini muffin cups with shortening or cooking spray; lightly flour cups.
• In large bowl, stir together cake mix, water, butter and eggs until smooth. Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups.
• Bake 8 to 10 minutes or just until cupcakes spring back when touched lightly in center. Cool completely, at least 15 minutes. Remove from muffin cups to cooling rack.
• Using sharp knife, cut top off of each cupcake. Spoon 1 teaspoon pudding onto center of bottom half of each cupcake. Cover with top halves of cupcakes.
• In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and whipping cream uncovered on High 30 to 60 seconds or until chips are melted and mixture can be stirred smooth. Spoon chocolate mixture on top of each cupcake. Let stand until chocolate is set before serving. Store in refrigerator.

Steps:

• Mix vanilla and pudding together and place into decorator's gun with a large enough opening to inject pudding into the cupcakes.
• Gently poke the decorator gun into the center of each cupcake and inject about 1 Tbsp pudding into the cupcake (it is fine if some puffs out the top a bit).
• Once all cupcakes have been injected, cover and chill them while making the topping.
• Heat cream in a saucepan on medium heat just until the sides start to have tiny bubbles; don't walk away from the pan.
• As soon as it gets to this point, remove from the heat and add chocolate chips, whisking fiercely until the chips have melted and everything is smooth (the heated cream should be hot enough to melt the chips).
• Set out some wax paper and grab your slightly chilled cupcakes.
• Spoon some of the topping onto the center of a cupcake, covering the pudding opening, adding more topping around the edges to cover the top of cupcake completely with the topping.
• Set cupcake onto the wax paper to cool.
• Repeat until all cupcakes are covered with the topping, then place into a covered container and chill at least 1 hour, the topping will get firmer but not hard.
• You may have extra topping, in fact, I look forward to having extra topping to use on top of ice cream; store extra topping in covered container in the fridge up to 1 week.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with cupcake liners and set aside.
• Crack the eggs into a small container and set aside. Set the sugar aside. Then, in a small bowl, mix the gluten-free flour, nutmeg and salt together with a fork and set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter with a paddle attachment until the butter is light in color and fluffy. Add the sugar to the butter and continue beating until the sugar is uniformly incorporated into the butter. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then restart the mixer on low speed and add 1 egg at a time, waiting until it is fully incorporated in the butter mixture before adding the next egg.
• Once all the eggs have been added, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that all the butter is incorporated with the eggs. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the milk and oil, added in two additions, fully incorporating each addition into the batter before moving to the next step. If needed, stop the mixer after each addition and scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then resume mixing on low. Once all the dry ingredients and the milk have been combined with the butter mixture, evenly fill the cupcake pan cavities two-thirds of the way. Bake the cupcakes until the top of each cupcake is slightly springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 14 to 16 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately turn the cupcakes out of the pan onto a cooling rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely.
• Putting it all together: Using an apple corer or knife, core the centers out of the cooled cupcakes and remove. Fill the cupcakes with the Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream. Pipe the Dark Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream to cover the top of each cooled cupcake.
• Bring the shallow dish or container for the finished pastry cream near the stovetop, and have the plastic wrap nearby as well. Measure the butter and vanilla bean paste into a small container and bring over near the stovetop. Pour the milk and 1/4 cup sugar into a heavy saucepot and scald over medium heat until the milk starts to steam. Do not boil the milk!
• Meanwhile, whisk together the cornstarch and the remaining 1/4 cup sugar to combine and prevent any lumps in the cornstarch, and then add the whole egg and egg yolks. Whisk the egg yolk mixture until smooth and completely combined, and then bring over to the stove area and set the bowl with the yolks on top of a damp dish towel.
• When the milk is steaming, remove from the heat. Whisking the egg yolk mixture constantly, slowly pour the milk in a steady stream into the egg yolk mixture. Once all the milk is combined with the egg yolk mixture, pour it back into the saucepot and return to medium-high heat, whisking constantly. Continue whisking and bring it to a boil. Let the egg yolk mixture boil for 1 minute (and continue whisking constantly so lumps don't form!) and then remove from the heat. Stir in the butter and vanilla bean paste, and then pour the entire contents of the pot into the shallow dish.
• Immediately cover the surface of the pastry cream with the plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool, about 1 hour. Once cool, remove from the refrigerator and whisk until completely smooth and lump free. Fill a piping bag with the pastry cream and set aside until you need it.
• Measure the sugar and 1/4 cup water into a heavy saucepan and heat over high heat until the sugar mixture reaches 250 degrees F, 15 to 20 minutes (use a candy thermometer to gauge the temperature).
• While the sugar is cooking, beat the egg whites on medium speed in the mixing bowl of a stand mixture to the soft peak stage (whites will look foamy and white). Be careful not to over whip the whites (if the egg whites start to look clumpy, then they've been over whipped. If this happens, toss them out and start again! If the whites are beating faster than the sugar is cooking, turn down the mixer speed. You can always turn up the speed if you need to!) Add the cream of tartar and continue whipping.
• While the egg whites are whipping on medium speed, gently pour the sugar syrup down the side of the mixing bowl. Turn the speed up to high and whip until the mixing bowl no longer feels warm to the touch, about 7 minutes.
• Meanwhile, melt the dark chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl at 30 second intervals, stirring in between each interval, until the chocolate is completely melted.
• Turn the mixer speed back to medium and add the butter in small chunks until it is completely incorporated. Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the vanilla bean paste and sea salt. Turn the mixer back on medium-low speed until the vanilla paste has mixed entirely through the buttercream. Spoon a small amount (about 1/2 cup) of the buttercream into the melted dark chocolate and stir to combine. Add the chocolate mixture back to the buttercream and whip thoroughly, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the chocolate is combined.
• Fit an 18-inch plastic piping bag with an 847 star tip and twist the bag right by the tip to prevent the buttercream from leaking out. While you grasp the piping bag right above the star tip with your hand, fold the top of the piping bag over your hand and spoon the butter cream into the piping bag.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350ºF.
• Prepare cake batter and bake as directed on package for 24 cupcakes. Cool completely.
• Beat pudding mix and milk in medium bowl with whisk 2 min. Let stand 5 min. Meanwhile, use serrated knife to cut cupcakes horizontally in half.
• Whisk 1/2 cup COOL WHIP into pudding; spoon onto bottom halves of cupcakes, using about 1 Tbsp. for each. Cover with cupcake tops.
• Microwave remaining COOL WHIP and chocolate in small microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended. Let stand 15 min.
• Frost cupcakes with chocolate mixture. Refrigerate 15 min.

Steps:

• MAKE THE CUSTARD: In a small bowl, whisk 1/4 cup milk with the cornstarch until smooth.
• Add the egg yolks and whisk until blended.
• Combine the remaining milk and sugar in a small, heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
• Remove pan from heat and whisk 1/2 the milk mixture into the yolk mixture.
• Return yolk mixture back to the pan and bring to a boil again; boil gently for 1 minute, whisking constantly.
• Remove pan from heat and whisk in the butter, vanilla, and salt; transfer filling to a covered container and refrigerate for several hours, until thickened and completely cool.
• (It's probably easier to make this one day ahead.) MAKE THE CUPCAKES: Preheat oven to 350*F.
• Line 12 jumbo muffin cups with paper liners.
• Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
• Place the sugar in a small bowl; split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a small paring knife into the sugar.
• Mix with a fork to distribute the seeds evenly throughout the sugar; set aside.
• Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream together the butter and sugar mixture for 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.
• Add the egg yolks 2 at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping bowl occasionally.
• Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk in 2 additions; blend until smooth.
• Reserve a scant 2 cups batter; spoon remaining batter into the prepared muffin tins.
• Center about 2 Tbsp.
• custard filling over the batter in each cup; completely cover with reserved batter.
• Bake cupcakes for 22-24 minutes, in 2 batches, or until the tops are golden brown and set.
• Cool for 10 minutes in the tins on wire racks; carefully remove cakes and cool completely.
• MAKE THE GANACHE: Bring the heavy cream to a boil in a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat.
• Remove pan from heat and add the chocolate, swirling the pan so that the cream covers the chocolate.
• Let stand for 3 minutes, to melt the chocolate; whisk gently until smooth, making sure to incorporate as little air as possible into the mixture.
• Set aside to cool to room temperature.
• Spread an even layer of ganache (about 2 Tbsp.) over each cupcake; refrigerate for 40 minutes to set the frosting.
• Serve at room temperature.