O Nigella, where art thou?

Boston Cream Pie, top-left, and Butterscotch Layer Cake, top-right. Both far more appealing to the eye than my subpar attempts.

Well, I return finally, a bit wee bit crestfallen with the way my last two recipes turned out. Ive been procrastinating quite a bit actually, it's hard to get enthusiastic enough to write about something that I didn't do very well at - hence no updates for the past couple of weeks!

Recipe #8: Boston Cream Pie
First on the list was the Boston Cream Pie - which is made with two Victoria Sponge Cakes (or one, in my case, cut in half), and has a cream patisserie filling with a chocolate ganache topping. Sound delicious? I thought so too, but I was actually kinda dissapointed with this one. Like I have said earlier on in this blog, the Victorian Sponge is very much like a huge pikelet, and while it tastes delicious, it is quite dense - not light and fluffy like (I think) a sponge should be. Then again, maybe this has something to do with my method... or it could be that I just shouldn't stay up till 12 o'clock at night making cakes!

The cream patisserie in the middle is a kind of vanilla custard - I finally found a use for the vanilla pod mum gave me forever ago! - but a bit lighter and thinner than the custard I normally make. It was pretty dang tasty actually, and I am contemplating making this again as a dessert rather than a cake filling - it would be oh-so-perfect with a nice hot rhubarb crumble. But I think I have finally figured out the downside of making one cake and slicing it in half rather than using two sponge tins - if you do not eat your cake straight after the layering process, whatever you have labouriously spread all through the middle will soak into the sliced surfaces of the sponge. So the next night, nearly 24 hours later when we finally served up our Boston Cream Pie, most of the patisserie had dissapeared into the cake.

The chocolate ganache - again, how delicious does this sound? - was a bit of a let down as well. I used nearly a whole block of Whitakers 80% cocoa and I think it was far too bitter to go with the rest of the cake. I'd like to try this again next time I need a chocolate icing - but with good old regular dairy milk for a bit of extra sweetness. It did still taste ok, but I was pretty disappointed over all. Not one I would be in a hurry to make again.
Chris' rating: 3/5

A little bit rain spattered due to running it from the car to
Grandma's house on the night of the flooding in Whakatane!

Recipe#9: Butterscotch Layer Cake
Well I finally splashed out and bought myself a pair of sponge tins for this one - no more disappearing fillings! Or flat cakes! Yay! The sponge cake in this recipe is really delicious too - it has mainly brown sugar so it is has a light caramelly flavour which goes really well with all that butterscotch. But that's about where the good-times end with this one I'm afraid - as I totally stuffed up the butterscotch. You have to put nearly equal amounts sugar and water in a pot on the stove and leave simmering for about 15 minutes. It stays clear for almost the whole amount of time, but then when the crucial moment strikes you have about 15 seconds to get it off the stove before it turns black and stinks out your house. Didn't quite master that part... hence I had burnt sugar. And instead of just cutting my losses and starting again - I thought that maybe, just maybe, you wouldn't taste the horrible burntness of it once it was all mixed up with cream cheese and other delicious expensive ingredients. Turns out you could.

I layered it all up anyway: cake, butterscotch, more cake, more butterscotch, drizzles of caramel.... It was nice and high this time, courtesy of my TWO sponge tins...! And the cake part was yummy as well, but I still just can't get past the burnt sugar in the butterscotch - something that would otherwise be freakin' delicious and creamy and rich. I do want to try this one again, but properly next time, sans burning. On the plus side - Chris can't even taste that I burnt anything, and he's the one that gives me my ratings. Bonus!
Chris' rating: 3/5