My Mom's Boston Cream Pie

My birthday post led to a request for my mom's super awesome Boston Cream Pie recipe. It's my favorite, and I'm telling you, it's the icing that makes this cake... or pie... or cake... It's a dual-personality dessert.

Anyway, here's the recipe - ENJOY!

Kathi's Boston Cream Pie

1 box of yellow cake mix
1 large box of instant vanilla pudding
2 3/4 cup milk
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 Tbsp. butter or margarine
2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
hot water

Mix and bake cake according to directions using 8" pans. Cool cake.

Mix pudding according to directions, except use 2 3/4 cups of milk. Refrigerate pudding until cake is cool.

When cake is COMPLETELY cool and pudding is set, slice each cake in half. Divide pudding between both cakes and fill cakes with pudding.

Melt chocolate and butter over LOW heat. When melted, remove from heat and stir in confectioner's sugar and vanilla. Add 1 tsp. of hot water until proper consistency is reached. You want it thin enough to pour/spread over cake, but not too thin that it runs off the top of the cake or soaks into the cake. Divide icing between two cakes and spread on top of each.

***Here's a few of my notes***

- obviously, this makes two cakes. Unless you have a big family, you might not want both at the same time. I usually cut one cake and wrap the other in saran wrap and stick it in the fridge. I put half of the pudding in a container in the fridge as well. And I half the icing recipe. Then we eat one cake over a few days and when it's done, I finish making the other. It equals a week of Boston Cream Pie in my house - heaven!

- I used 9" pans because I don't have 8". It works fine, your layers will just be a little thinner and harder to handle after you cut them in half. At least one of mine normally breaks a little, but I also remember this happening to my mom when she used 8" pans.

- if I'm in a hurry and don't have time for the cake to cool on the rack, I cut it in half and stick it in the freezer for about 5 minutes. You do want the cake completely cool, otherwise the pudding will get runny and the icing will not set.

I hope you enjoy the cake as much as I do. I actually like it better the next day after the icing has hardened a little in the fridge. Now I want to go make another one!