Welcome to this week’s Mid-Century Menu!  Normally, this is where I cook a terrifiying recipe from the 1950s or 1960s and serve it to my poor husband for dinner, but if you have been reading my blog this week you know that I am visiting my parents in Wisconsin.  So, my post for this week is going to be the Washington Cream Pie that I made to go with the Frankfurter Pie I made two weeks ago.  Hooray for a post that contains something edible!

This recipe comes from another cookbook inherited from my grandmother.  The recipe for Washington Cream Pie isn’t exactly in this book, but it is in spirit. But first things first.

What the heck is Washington Cream Pie, anyway??

Well, according to some frenzied internet searching, Washington Cream Pie very similar to Boston Cream Pie, in that it is a spongecake, not a pie, has cream filling, and it is named after a city. 

The major differences are that there is no chocolate in Washington Cream Pie (bummer) and while Boston Cream Pie has two layers, Washington Cream Pie has four.  In later versions it is served with a can of cherry pie filling on top, but the original is only supposed to be dusted with powdered sugar.

So, here is the spongecake recipe I used, which was the one that was used in the cake book for Boston Cream Pie.

Here are the ingredients, all prepped and waiting their turns.

I had only small eggs, so I used three. In retrospect, it was a mistake, but now I know, right?

Here are the cakes ready for the oven.

The batter was incredibly light, which I was happy about.

While the cake baked, I made the cream filling. Here is the recipe for the filling, which is from the same book as the cake recipe.

I had never made cream filling before, and this stuff was GOOOOOOOD. It was hard not to eat spoonfuls of it out of the pan while it cooled.

The pros of using cream filling – you don’t have to wait for the cake to cool completely before you fill it.

Yum! 

The texture of the finished cake wasn’t everything I had hoped for, but I think that it was good for my first attempt at a spongecake.  The filling was amazing, and I will definitely be maked that in the future to be eaten in other cakes and pasteries.

The verdict: Good

Hubs and I agreed that the cake was too eggy, but since I had stupidly added extra egg, I couldn’t blame the recipe for that.  It was blissfully edible, too, and we both ate a huge piece for dessert after the Frankfurter Pie.

As a side note, this is the first cake I have ever made since living with Hubs that he didn’t eat the whole thing before it went south.  At the end of the week I had to throw part of it away, which was sad. No worries, though. I was happy to have made a good mid-century recipe for once.

Sorry this one isn’t as nasty as some of the previous ones, but even Hubs needs a break once in a while!