Banana Boston Cream Pie

Boston cream pie meets banana cream pie (and it’s a cake)

The idea for this dessert began some months ago when I saw In My Element Cafe’s banoffee pie featuring whole bananas in the filling. The pie had been stuck in my head for months until I had the idea to combine two other dessert icons: banana cream pie and Boston cream pie.

Boston cream pie is not a pie, but a cake (and one that is fairly easy to make). It’s a hot milk cake sliced in half, filled with pastry cream, and topped with chocolate sauce. This banana-cream-pie-inspired version of a Boston cream pie has whole bananas in the pastry cream (just like they do at In My Element Cafe) and is topped with whipped cream.

This banana-studded, custard-filled cake turns Boston cream pie up a notch with added flavor and texture and barely any additional work. Letting the bananas infuse into the pastry cream produces such great flavor, and reminds me of banana pudding. I love it when a simple addition has such a big impact.

This cake went through many, many rounds of testing. About eight rounds in total. I did a whole bunch of cake testing, debated over a milk vs. a bittersweet chocolate glaze, figured out how to get the custard extra silky and jiggly, and also experimented with the assembly.*

Somehow, we’ve ended up with a cake that is quite easy to make. The cake, pastry cream, and glaze all come together quite quickly (20 minutes, 15 minutes, and 5 minutes of active time respectively). The assembly is also relatively quick for a layer cake with no fancy decorating or piping needed here (just slice the cake in half, add in the banana custard filling, and pour the glaze on top). The hard part is the waiting time, I recommend reading the recipe in full before you begin.

*One very important note: All of this testing resulted in a very light, fluffy, and tender cake. However, it is so tender that it will squish under the weight of all the custard filling. So, I have provided two quantities of custard below: one is the amount you see in the photos above, and the other is reduced by a third. I love all the custard in the filling so I personally believe in making the larger quantity, but if you don’t love custard and want to avoid any compression, you can find the lesser quantities under the “Reduced custard filling” heading. (You can also make the cake in a 9” pan, which will distribute the weight a bit better.)

Ingredients