Last week my lovely father turned 55. To celebrate his 'double-nickel' birthday I asked him what kind of cake he wanted. After he originally told me he didn't need a cake and I reminded him that Dad, it's your birthday. Of course you need a cake! He decided he wanted chocolate...perhaps German chocolate. I made this cake last month for my sister Ellen's birthday. However, I think this cake is cursed with me because last time I made it I didn't secure the cake to the cake round well enough and it slid to the side. This time I was FORCED to frost the cake when it was still a little warm which is something I would usually NEVER do. So it got a nice little steam bath in the cake carrier on the way to the bowling alley. Sigh.
So....a little bit about German Chocolate Cake. A lot of people think that this cake originated in Germany which is why it is called German chocolate. However, it is far from the truth. German Chocolate was created by Baker's, the same people producing the chocolate today. It was created by Sam German who worked for the company and created a sweet baking chocolate for them. The cake that was created using this baking chocolate became known as German's Chocolate Cake but over time it has progressed into just being known as German Chocolate Cake. The cake is a light chocolate cake with a coconut pecan frosting. It is a favorite of many people I know and it is a little bit more of a labor intensive cake but it is well worth the effort.
This is a little spin on the original recipe.
1/2 C Water
1 C Butter
4 Egg Yolks
1 C Buttermilk
1 t Baking soda
4 Egg whites
4 oz German chocolate
2 C sugar
1 t vanilla
2 1/2 C cake flour
1/2 t salt
1. Preheat oven to 350*, grease 9" pans. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. In a small saucepan, heat water and chocolate until melted, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks one at a time. Blend in chocolate mixture and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
3. In a separate bowl mix egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of egg whites into the batter, then quickly fold remaining whites until no streaks remain.
4. Pour into 3 9" pans and bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
Coconut Pecan Frosting
4 Egg yolks
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2 C sugar
3/4 C (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 package (7 oz) coconut
1 1/2 C pecans
Beat egg yolks, milk and vanilla in a large saucepan with whisk until well blended. Add sugar and butter; cook on medium heat 12 min. or until thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Add coconut and nuts; mix well and cool.
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I usually make the frosting before I make the cake because it needs to cool and it can take a while. I tend to leave it in the fridge and take it out an hour or so before I want to frost the cake so that it has a chance to warm up. In order to make the frosting you need to have some time you can dedicate to making this frosting because you need to pay really close attention to it. Start by mixing the egg yolks, evaporated milk and vanilla together.
Add the sugar and butter and heat up while constantly stirring.
You have to continually stir the mixture because if you don't it can easily burn. You can see the the color is a pale yellow when you start. As you continue mixing it and it slowly cooks the color gets darker. When its done it'll be a golden brown color of deliciousness.
When it get all lovely and golden, its time to take it off the heat and add both the coconut and pecans. Mix it well and set it in the fridge.
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Now onto the cake! I actually don't have pictures of the first part of making the cake because I was super rushed when I was making the cake. I had gotten off work later than I expected and I had forgotten how many steps there were to this cake so I only remembered halfway through. However, I've basically had pictures of all the other steps in other posts with the exception of melting the chocolate and the water together which is really easy to figure out on your own. Honestly, I think the hardest part of this recipe is correctly folding in the egg whites. It is important that your egg whites are at room temperature so that they form into stiff peaks faster and with more body. It can be easy to either under beat the eggs or over beat them. While you want stiff peaks to form, if you mix it too much over that the eggs will start to break down and won't create that lovely rise for the cake.
I put the egg whites in my kitchenaid and added the whisk attachment and started to run it on med-high. If you don't agitate the eggs enough they won't form like you want them to. Once you reach stiff peaks, its time to start to add it to your cake batter that you have prepared.
This recipe calls for you to fold in 1/3 of the egg whites first. Folding egg whites into a cake batter is a very delicate process. You don't want to mix it in too harshly or you are going to pop all those air bubbles you just painstakingly put into the eggs. When folding you want to use a spatula and DO NOT STIR. Start by cutting down the middle and lifting from the bottom and fold the batter over itself. Continue to do this slowly and gently until you see no white streaks.
Once the first third is mixed in, continue mixing in the rest of the egg whites using the same method. Please, please, please never stir it and never use a mixer to add egg whites like this to any batter.
Once everything is mixed in and looking lovely it is time to put it in the cake pans. This recipe uses three cake pans. What I like to do is line my cake pans with parchment paper so that the cakes are really easy to turn out once they are done baking. In order to get parchment circles I take parchment paper around the size of my cake pan and stack three of them together. I fold them in half once and then again. I then fold them on the diagonal a couple times until I am left with a very narrow, long triangle. I then line the end up with the center of the pan and cut the excess paper off at that point. I'm left with 3 parchment circles which I add to pans I've already used baking spray on and then spray the sheets once again.
Evenly divide the cake batter among the three pans and bake away. Make sure you give the cakes adequate time to cool or your cake turns out to be a melty mess (trust me).
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Once everything is cooled (cake) or warmed accordingly (frosting) it is time to assemble! I like to take a little frosting and spread it on my cake round or serving dish when I start to build my cake to keep it in place. I used a little bit of chocolate frosting I made to cover the sides with.
The cakes I made were slightly rounded on the top. When layering a cake it is really important that all your layers are level or your cake will look lopsided or could easily crack and break apart and no one wants an ugly cake. I just took a knife and leveled off each of the layers. Wilton makes a really cheap tool you can get to do this as well that makes it even all around but if you have a good eye and steady hand you can do it just as well with a knife.
Once the first layer is down, take some of the coconut pecan frosting and spread away. You'll want to divide the frosting into thirds as there are three layers. You'll want roughly the same amount on every layer.
Continue to build the cake up until you have all three levels assembled and frosted. Some people leave the sides exposed on German chocolate cakes but I like to have the entire cake covered because I think cake dries out very quickly and I would hate to serve someone a dry cake. I usually just make a small batch of chocolate frosting to cover the sides. I decided to go with a sort of messy approach on the chocolate frosting on the side of this cake because a) I was in a rush and b) messy done right can look really cute.
The cake looked okay long enough for me to get it in the cake carrier, drive out to Elkhorn and present it to my father. He said the cake looked like how he felt so I guess it was appropriate that it looked awful. Let this be a lesson to you as to why you should NEVER frost a cake when it is warm. (Excuse the profanity- however he was getting pretty old- though if he acted his age he'd be acting younger! Love you Dad!)
The cake was delicious even if it was a sad looking thing. Regardless I had a great time hanging out with my family when we celebrated my amazing Father's birthday.
Happy 55th Birthday Dad. We love you!
Tune in next time for the cookies and cream cheesecake cupcakes I made as a result of losing a bet to my boss....sad day.
