Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

For my birthday, my husband bought me a mini tripod for my camera to help me take photos for my blog. I tested it out on these cupcakes and I think it's a keeper—just like him.

When I think of Easter dessert, coconut bunny cake and Boston Cream Pie comes to mind. Since I just made coconut cupcakes, I decided on these Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes I saw in the March issue of Woman's Day. The issue had a cupcake section with some pretty interesting recipes. I'm planning to try most of them. Since I had a busy weekend, I used a french vanilla cake box mix for the cupcakes and subbed Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Frosting for the glaze. These got rave reviews from my husband's family. They were so yummy that I ate two of them before we even made it to dinner. The recipe below is how it appears in the magazine.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes
Source: Woman's Day, March 2010

Cupcakes:
2 and 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1 /2 sticks butter (room temperature)
1 and 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with 24 cupcake liners.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

On low, alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, ending with flour mixture.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 18 - 20 minutes. Cool in pans a few minutes and transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Filling:
1 package instant vanilla pudding
1 and 1/4 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together pudding mix, milk, and vanilla extract for 2 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge at least 30 minutes.

Chocolate Glaze topping:
8 oz. semisweet chocolate (chips or chopped)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 water
3 tablespoons butter

Combine chocolate, sugar, and water in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook about 3 minutes, stirring until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted. Let cool a few minutes before topping cooled cupcakes.

To assemble the cupcakes:
Use the cone method to remove a chunk of cake from the center of each cupcake.
Put aside chunk of removed cake.
Fill the holes with pudding.
Place chunk of cake back on top of cupcake like a plug.
Top with chocolate glaze and a maraschino cherry (if desired).