![\"Boston](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/8798327da831ce1d5597d735a159bb7dd8cdfe4e057859d9ccb236c1f32f35e1.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
<\/p>\nBoston cream pie is an American dessert in which a thick layer of custard is sandwiched between two soft cakes and the top is covered with chocolate. There is no pastry shell. Pale cake, yellow cream and a brown topping are layered, and in each mouthful of a slice, the soft base and the cool filling come together with the deep flavor of chocolate. Though made with cake, it is called a pie, and it is known as a signature dessert of the Parker House, a hotel in Boston.<\/p>\n
Some versions use a sponge in which the egg whites and yolks are whipped separately and combined, and then flour and melted butter are added. Baked as a single cake, cooled and sliced horizontally, it yields two layers of the same crumb.<\/p>\n
Some home recipes (the ingredient proportions and method) whip eggs and sugar, add oil and flour, and then combine hot milk and butter. In this case, the soft batter is divided between two round pans, baked and cooled thoroughly. Both are methods for making a soft cake that holds its shape even with thick custard between the layers and can be cut with a fork.<\/p>\n
Eiko Tsuchida, who spent her childhood in the United States, recalls that even when she made the Boston cream pie she remembered by following a cookbook exactly, the texture of the cake was different. Later, using a yellow cake mix bought in North America brought the flavor closer to her memory. Even under the same name, there are cakes made from scratch at home and cakes made with store-bought mixes.<\/p>\n
The filling is a custard made by cooking milk, eggs, sugar, starch and so on. Adding warm milk to the eggs a little at a time before returning the mixture to the pan helps prevent part of the egg from setting on its own. It is heated through while being stirred, and the starch gives it a thickness that keeps it from running.<\/p>\n
The custard is cooled with its surface covered to prevent a skin from forming, then spread evenly over the cooled cake. Adding rum or vanilla brings the aroma of spirits or vanilla to the flavor of milk and eggs. Layering after both the cake and the cream have cooled thoroughly helps the layers hold.<\/p>\n
When ganache is used for the topping, chocolate and fresh cream are combined until smooth, cooled slightly and poured over. The deep flavor covering the top contrasts with the gentle custard.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Boston cream pie with cream sandwiched between sponge layers and a chocolate topping poured over. Photo: GorillaWarfare, 2019-03-29, location unknown. Original image<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Downsized version from the source; no additional processing.<\/p>\n In 19th-century America there was Washington pie, in which cakes baked in shallow round pans were layered with jam or the like between them. This is the background to why the name pie remains on this cake-based dessert as well. The Boston cream pie in the 1878 Granite Iron Ware Cook Book has custard between the layers but no chocolate topping. In Maria Parloa\u2019s 1887 cookbook, under the alternative name chocolate cream pie, all three elements come together: butter cake, vanilla custard and chocolate icing. The dessert\u2019s name and its present-day combination are thus recorded in separate printed sources.<\/p>\n Boston\u2019s Parker House is a hotel opened by Harvey Parker in 1855. Omni, the company that operates it, says that the chef Augustine Fran\u00e7ois Anezin and the kitchen added chocolate\u2014at the time more often used for drinks and the like\u2014as an icing to sponge cake and vanilla custard. According to this origin story from the hotel, it was at first called \u201cParker House Chocolate Cream Pie.\u201d<\/p>\n The year in which Anezin perfected the three-layer dessert as it is known today is not clear. In late-19th-century cookbooks, the dessert with custard between the layers and the one that also had chocolate icing were recorded under different names.<\/p>\n The hotel\u2019s traditional recipe includes rum-flavored cream, a topping of chocolate and white fondant, and roasted almonds on the sides. In another recipe the hotel currently publishes, white chocolate is swirled over the ganache and the tip of a knife is drawn from the center outward to create a spiderweb pattern. Even at the same hotel, the way it is finished has changed.<\/p>\n In the mid-20th century, cake mixes spread it to homes as well. Even when a simple chocolate topping took the place of the elaborate icing, the combination of cake, custard and chocolate remained. Today it is also designated the official state dessert of Massachusetts.<\/p>\n At Hamashiman in Isezakicho, Yokohama, Boston cream pie has long been a signature item. According to the shop\u2019s own introduction, it began selling Western-style confections in 1957 after bringing in a pastry chef who had worked on passenger ships on international routes. A customer who ate this dessert both at the Boston hotel and at the Yokohama shop in 2012 wrote that the Yokohama version contained plenty of fresh cream and that its sponge was light and fluffy. Even a dessert of the same name that crossed the sea has methods and flavors that differ from shop to shop.<\/p>\n Hamashiman<\/strong>: A confectionery shop in Isezakicho, Yokohama. It has offered Boston cream pie for many years.<\/p> Eiko Tsuchida<\/strong>: A writer who has written about the foods of her childhood in the United States and recreating them at home.<\/p> Custard<\/strong>: A cream made by cooking milk, eggs, sugar and so on. For Boston cream pie, starch is added to make it firm enough to sandwich.<\/p> Ganache<\/strong>: A smooth mixture of chocolate combined with fresh cream or the like.<\/p> Fondant<\/strong>: An icing material made by cooling a cooked sugar syrup and working it to form fine crystals. It is sometimes flavored with chocolate.<\/p> Augustine Fran\u00e7ois Anezin<\/strong>: The chef the hotel credits as the dessert\u2019s creator. Even within the hotel\u2019s own retrospective accounts, the years of his hiring and of the creation do not agree.<\/p> Harvey Parker<\/strong>: The man who opened the Parker House in Boston in 1855.<\/p> Parker House<\/strong>: A historic hotel in Boston, United States. Today the Omni Parker House.<\/p> Massachusetts<\/strong>: A state in the northeastern United States, with Boston as its capital.<\/p> Maria Parloa<\/strong>: A 19th-century American cooking educator and cookbook author. She left recipes for cream-filled cakes and chocolate desserts.<\/p> Boston Landmarks Commission, \u201cThe Parker House Study Report\u201d (2023 amended version)<\/a> \u2014 Printed pages 2 and 25 (PDF pages 8 and 31) read directly by the parent reviewer. Operation since 1855; account of the opening on October 8, 1855. Not a source that treats the building\u2019s opening and the dessert\u2019s creation as the same year.<\/p>\n<\/li> Isezakicho Shopping Street, \u201cHamashiman\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The shop\u2019s own account of starting sales of Western-style confections in 1957 and of having offered Boston cream pie for many years.<\/p>\n<\/li> Tabelog: 2012 visit review by sae113<\/a> \u2014 An individual\u2019s impressions after eating the hotel\u2019s dessert and the Yokohama shop\u2019s dessert. The impressions of the fresh cream and the cake are from the time of the visit.<\/p>\n<\/li> Eiko Tsuchida, \u201cAmerican Foods I Remember (Boston Cream Pie)\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Recollections of childhood flavors and of recreating them using a cookbook and a store-bought cake mix.<\/p>\n<\/li> King Arthur Baking, \u201cBoston Cream Pie\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Hot-milk batter, custard, ganache, and the difference between the hotel\u2019s icing and the home mix.<\/p>\n<\/li> Omni Parker House, \u201cBoston Cream Pie Recipe\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Separated-egg sponge, rum cream, the currently published ganache and white chocolate, almonds.<\/p>\n<\/li> Greg Patent, \u201cBoston Cream Pie,\u201d Gastronomica 1(4), 2001, 82\u201387, transcription of the text<\/a> \u2014 His own research into cookbooks and menus, and on-site reporting at the hotel. Washington pie, the differences between the 1878 and 1887 recipes, and a comparison of the traditional icing with modern ganache. Bibliographic details of the issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li> Omni Parker House, \u201cHistory\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The hotel\u2019s own account of the dessert\u2019s creation. The history text gives creation in 1856, the timeline gives adoption in 1865, and a separate article gives an opening in 1856; the dates are inconsistent with one another. The opening year is given as 1855, following the hotel\u2019s timeline and the City of Boston report. The transcription of Patent\u2019s article also contains a differing note giving an 1856 opening, but the original advertisement was not examined firsthand this time. The year of the dessert\u2019s creation is not fixed in the main text.<\/p>\n<\/li>![\"Small](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/ffa90a4e3fc1513712e79007f83fdd4767f3300fd71cacce7b659cc181aa0ee5.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
\nThe name \u201cpie\u201d for cakes from shallow round pans<\/h2>\n
The creation story handed down at the Parker House<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/7c19827c93bb98687b1b2213e789ce4ccae21970be297723ff177b95e422a384.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
\nThe hotel\u2019s decoration and chocolate toppings for home kitchens<\/h2>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/56a6768179d1b0d25f3ec33d7f8e21bd0d1af832f63e676069a04802ed2fbcca.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
\nThe Boston name lives on in Yokohama<\/h2>\n
Glossary<\/h2>\n
References<\/h2>\n
![Original image<\/a> \/](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Boston_cream_pie.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Bcpie1.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Boston_cream_torte_Parker_House_Hotel_in_Boston.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Serving_Boston_Cream_Pie_at_the_Lincoln_Day_Dinner_in_Des_Moines_(470856612).jpg\"){kind=link}