Classic Boston Cream Pie Cut

Boston Cream Pie is a truly classic dessert. Two layers of rich yellow cake are sandwiched around a thick layer of pastry cream, and topped with a soft, dark chocolate glaze.

Despite its name, it is in fact a cake, and not a pie. The dessert acquired its name when cakes and pies were cooked in the same pans, and the words were used interchangeably. In the latter part of the 19th century, this type of cake was variously called a “cream pie”, a “chocolate cream pie”, or a “custard cake”.

Owners of the Parker House Hotel in Boston claim that the Boston cream pie was first created at the hotel by Armenian-French chef M. Sanzian in 1856. Called a “Chocolate Cream Pie”, this cake consisted of two layers of French butter sponge cake filled with crème pâtissière and brushed with a rum syrup, its side coated with crème pâtissière overlain with toasted sliced almonds, and the top coated with chocolate fondant. While other custard cakes may have existed at this time baking chocolate as a coating was a new process, making it unique and a popular choice on the menu.

The Boston cream pie is the official dessert of Massachusetts, declared as such on 12 December 1996.