Boston Cream Pie

I’ve often wondered why they call this dessert a “pie”.  I’ve always figured it was because pie tins were more available than the type of cake pan we think of today when this dish was created by a Boston chef. It’s my husband’s favorite cake, actually.  He asked me if I thought I could make a low-carb version of his favorite cake and I decided to give it a try.  This famous dessert is only as good as the cake it’s made with.  I used Nancy’s 3 Minute Vanilla Cake on Linda Genaw’s site.  So I thought that would be a good starting point.  I baked two of those (slightly modified) in 6″ ceramic quiche dishes.

I actually had about half a batch of my current favorite low-carb chocolate frosting in the freezer, so I just defrosted it to use.  For the cream filling, I used vanilla sugar-free pudding mix, changing how I make it.  Cake was quite good and here’s a pic of the whole cake.  This recipe is not suitable for Induction.

CREAM FILLING:  Whisk the following well in a small bowl.  Chill for 20-30 minutes.

½ package sugar-free vanilla pudding powder

¼ c. heavy cream

½ c. water

If you prefer to make your pastry cream from scratch, I would recommend DJfoodie’s Pastry Cream recipe, but the stats below were calculated on the cream made with the dry pudding powder.

CHOCOLATE FROSTING:  Make a recipe of this frosting and use 1/2 of it to frost this small cake.  Refrigerate or freeze the remaining half for other uses.  Exactly 1/2 of the recipe has been calculated in the nutritional info below.

Nancy’s 3-Minute Cake INGREDIENTS:

4 T. butter, unsalted

2 eggs, beaten

4 T. water

½ c. granular Splenda (or equivalent liquid sweetener)

¼ c. golden flax meal

¼ c. almond flour

2/3 c. whey protein, unflavored, unsweetened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. baking powder

DIRECTIONS:   In your microwave, melt 2 T. of the butter in each of two small 6″ quiche dishes.  Add 1 beaten egg and 2 T. of water to each dish.  Stir well to blend.  Next add to each baking dish: ¼ c. Splenda (or equivalent liquid sweetener) , 2 T. flax meal, 2 T. almond flour, 1/3 c. whey protein, ½ tsp. vanilla extract and ½ tsp. baking powder.  Stir well until completely smooth.  Microwave each layer for about 70 seconds or until center is dry and spring back when touched.  Remove and cool slightly.  Using a flexible spatula, gently tip/lift out layer to your serving plate.

Remove cream from refrigerator and stir once for smoothness.  Gently spread a ¼-½” layer of cream onto bottom layer of cake, which may not use it all up.  If you’ve got kids, not a problem.  They’ll be happy to take care of the leftovers for ya!  😉  Don’t get the cream too close to the edges of the cake or it will ooze out when layer #2 goes on.

Gently remove second cake from the dish and set it carefully on top of the cream layer.  Slightly press to seat it well.  Now spread a thin layer of frosting on the top of the cake.  Frosting the sides is tricky, as the cream tends to want to ooze out and mix with the frosting.  Not a problem, just smooth such spots back and forth and the cream and frosting will blend and nobody will ever know but you.  😉

Store uneaten cake in the refrigerator.  Chill cake for 30 minutes or so to set the frosting and it’s ready to serve.  I find this cake gets firmer when totally cold, so the next day, if any leftover, I like to pull it out of the fridge for an hour before serving so the cake and frosting return to their softer state.  🙂

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NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 6 servings, each contains:  (Carbs will be lower if you use liquid sweetener)

271 cals. , 23 g  fat, 8.7g  carbs, 2.22g  fiber, 6.48g NET CARBS, 13 g protein, 250 mg sodium

SPECIAL NOTE:  For those that want a bigger slice (with a higher carb price to pay):  1/4 of the cake=406 calories, 13.05 carbs, 3.33 g fiber, 9.72 g NET CARBS, 19.1 g protein, and 374 mg sodium.