A Boston cream pie is a yellow butter cake that is filled with custard or cream and topped with chocolate glaze.
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 say that the Boston cream pie was first created at the hotel by French chef Augustine Francois Anezin, who led the hotel’s culinary staff from 1865 to 1881. A direct descendant of earlier cakes known as American pudding-cake pie and Washington pie, the dessert was referred to as chocolate cream pie, Parker House chocolate cream pie, and finally Boston cream pie on Parker House’s menus. The cake consisted of two layers of French butter sponge cake filled with thick custard and brushed with a rum syrup; its side was coated with the same custard overlaid with toasted sliced almonds, and the top coated with chocolate fondant.While other custard cakes may have existed at that time, baking chocolate as a coating was a new process, making it unique and a popular choice on the menu.[
