The Last Bake of 2018

My step-sib Alex's birthday turned 28 yesterday and picked out a cake that he found disappointing. He said he wished he'd got a cheesecake or a Boston cream pie, since he'd never had the latter and always wanted to try one. So, today, we put one together for him.

I used my foolproof vanilla sponge cake recipe from here and chocolate glaze recipe from here (without syrup, or vanilla...there's no such thing as golden syrup in this country and I simply forgot the vanilla), so the only thing that was new to me was the creme patissiere to go in the middle. I debated not bothering and going with just whipped cream, but, meh, best to do it properly.

The creme pat was as follows -

3 egg yolks, whipped with 5 tbsp of sugar until pale and thick
Beat in 1 and a half tbsp each of flour and cornflour
Heat 1 and a half cups of milk with 1 tsp vanilla in a saucepan until just boiling
Pour slowly over the egg yolks, whisking all the time
Put the mixture back into the saucepan and heat gently whilst whisking until super thick. Mr Z was in charge of this and was very cautious with the heat, so it took a while, but if I'd been doing it I would undoubtedly have burned it, so I guess that was for the best.
Scrape into a container, lay clingfilm on top of the surface so it doesn't skin over, and chill until required.

It tasted pretty good. The cakes rose more than I thought they would; it could maybe have done with a thicker layer of creme pat, but since we were just talking yesterday about cakes having, in general, too much frosting, I think this was fine for today.