Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

It happens just once a year, every year, on the same day.  You get your very own special holiday, where you are free to revert back to an eight-year-old child and do things a certain way just because you can.  Things like eat ice cream for breakfast, have a bundle of helium balloons follow you around work all day, wear a paper crown. Well, it was his. Celebrations were in order. Last year I made these.  How could I top that?

There were clues all year.  Seconds on dessert at the holiday staff party, certain dinners out, repeatedly getting the same thing when He Never Even Wants Dessert!  That kind of thing. I had an inkling.

Boston Cream Pie it is.

Angel Food Cake with Blueberry Sauce

Do you ever look at an angel food cake and think, man, they make them too cheap for me to ever try that at home! I do, a lot. It could be because I spend most of my waking hours surrounded by food, but they've been taunting me for a while from their perch in the bakery: Psst ... J Fierce, don't you want to break down and actually purchase a baked good? Not just the ingredients for a baked good? Over here you can get all the flavor and none of the hassle, mess or cleanup ...

I'm here to tell you, those cakes are no angels.  Far from it. Their goal is to make you full, and leave your curiosity for kitchen taste testing unsatisfied. If only they knew that comments like that only make me steel myself harder against them. You know the philosophy over here with The Sisters Fierce. Why buy something I can make at home for twice the cost and double the effort? 

Coconut Rice Pudding

Hello internet! Guess what, I made something! In the kitchen, on the stovetop. Something with milk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla.... aren't you proud?  One of my unmentioned August goals was to make something gluten-free and celebratory (unmentioned because I didn't know if I would have time to fit it in and I didn't want to make any promises).  I envisioned something majestic, with piles of frosting, something worthy of celebrating both a birthday and going away occasion in one splendid baked good.

Well.

Let me tell you how that went down. I looked and looked through my 37 baking books. I was hunting for something either gluten free or with a small amount of flour so that I could substitute it for rice flour. Thirty-seven books (that's my ballpark estimate, I haven't really counted ... yet), and not one appropriate towering cake recipe.  I was discouraged.  I paced and huffed. Then I improvised.  What is delicious and rarely ever made by hand any more? That's right, internet! Pudding!

Coconut rice pudding.  Creamy and chewy, delicious warm right out of the pot or cold from the tupperware in the fridge. Bonus: solid enough to hold candles!

Coconut Rice Pudding for two, adapted from Cooking for Two 2009

Ingredients
1 cup water
1/2 cup arborio rice 

1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1 1/2 cups milk (use whole or half and half, just not skim)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method
Bring the water to boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in the rice and salt. Cover, simmering over low heat until the water is almost entirely absorbed. This should take between 10-15 minutes.
Stir in coconut milk, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Continue simmering, stirring frequently, 45-55 minutes, or until a spoon (or in this case, a celebratory candle) can stand up easily in the pudding. Serve warm or chilled, if you can wait.