Boston Cream Cupcakes - unsalted butter

Method

• To make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer; add vanilla and eggs.
• Sift dry ingredients together and add in 3 stages, alternating with the buttermilk.
• Line muffin pans with paper liners.
• Fill each about three-quarters full with batter.
• Bake 15-20 minutes.
• To make pastry cream: Bring milk just to boil in medium saucepan.
• Whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch together in a bowl.
• Stir just a little of the hot milk into the egg mixture to equalize the temperatures.
• Add a little more hot milk to the egg mixture and stir well again.
• Then add all of the hot milk and stir.
• Return mixture to saucepan; whisk over low heat constantly until mixture becomes thick.
• Pour pastry cream into clean bowl and whisk in vanilla.
• Whisk in butter 1 ounce at a time until smooth.
• Cover surface with plastic wrap and chill until cool.
• Fold whipped cream into chilled pastry cream.
• To make chocolate glaze: Bring cream and corn syrup to boil.
• Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.
• Let hot cream sit on the chocolate for about 5 minutes.
• Stir until chocolate is dissolved and smooth.
• Stir in butter.
• To assemble: Fill pastry bag with pastry cream; poke tip of pastry bag into top of each cupcake and inject each with some pastry cream.
• OR slice each cupcake in half horizontally and spread some pastry cream in between layers.
• OR remove a cone-shaped section from center of cupcake, fill hole with pastry cream and then replace cake piece.
• Drizzle chocolate glaze over top of each cupcake.