I love coconut, my favorite candy bar is definitely Bounty with all its dark chocolate and coconut goodness. When girl scout cookies come to town I am can not resist a Samoa. When I was thinking about this bake it dawned on me that I had never made a German Chocolate Cake. So clearly, now is the time. It may not feel celebratory to everyone but given that it is not a normal cake I make and it is so very rich!
First we need to have a heart to heart about 'German Chocolate'. This is not German as in the European country and home to a fabulous beer culture and free university for all. This cake was originally called German's Chocolate Cake after the chocolate maker Samuel German who developed the sweet baking chocolate that is used in this cake as early as 1852. The cake recipe was first documented in 1957 in the Dallas Morning News and spread across the country from there. It is rather a sweet chocolate and doesn't have a deep chocolate flavor. There don't seem to be a lot of other recipes that feature German's chocolate, however, so if you have trouble finding German's chocolate, you can use semi sweet baking chocolate and add 1/2 tablespoon of sugar for each ounce, so in this case, 8 ounces chocolate, and 4 tablespoons sugar.
Note: this cake is not small, it is not at all even close to small. So feel welcome to half the recipe and bake it in two cake tins for a more reasonably sized cake.
Ingredients
Filling
6 egg yolks
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cubed butter (use salted, or add 1/2 teaspoon salt)
3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 1/3 cups chopped toasted pecans
Cake
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 oz German's chocolate, melted
4 large eggs, separated
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk +2 tablespoons
1/4 cup water
Frosting
1 cup butter (use salted, or add 1/2 teaspoon salt)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3-5 tablespoons milk
3-4 cups powdered sugar
Start with the filling! In a large sauce pan, combine the egg yolks, milk, and vanilla and whisk until combined. Add the sugar and butter, cooking on medium until thickened (close to pudding) and golden brown, 12-15 minutes. Don't walk away, just stir stir stir. Remove from heat and add in the coconut and pecans. Spread on a sheet tray if you need to cool it quickly, or pop the pan in the fridge to cool if you are in no hurry.
Next the cake! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep three 9 inch cake pans. You can be fancy if you want and do parchment but seriously, spray grease with flour = dream.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the sour cream and vanilla until combined. Add the chocolate, mixing until combined. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing until combined. In a small bowl combine the dry ingredients, and in a measuring cup (I use a two cup Pyrex for all these kinds of things) combine the buttermilk and water. Add half the dry, mix, add all the milk, mix, add the rest of the dry. Set aside.
Whip the egg whites in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until stiff peaks. Gently fold 1/3 into the batter, when a few streaks remain, add the rest of the egg whites and fold until combined.
Divide into the three pans, and make 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes away clean.
While the cake cools, make the frosting. Beat the butter until smooth, add 1 cup of powdered sugar until smooth, add vanilla, cocoa powder and 3 tablespoons milk. Then slowly add the remaining powdered sugar until you have the right consistency. If you over-add sugar and it gets to thick, just add a little more milk. Taste as you get to the end to make sure it is the texture and sweetness you like. This is a very forgiving frosting. Put 1/3 in a pastry bag for your decorations, and get ready to assemble.
It sounds complicated but it is actually just a 1-2-3 pattern. First trim your cake layers if needed. Then (1) place the layer on the cake plate (2) pipe a dam of frosting around the edge (3) spread 1/3 of the filling through the middle, then do that again. Then for the top layer frost the sides before piping the dam and filling the middle. You can get fancy with the frosting, or not, sometimes it is hard to get fancy when you just want to eat it! Some folks leave this kind of cake naked, but here in our dry climate, the frosting helps keep the cake moist unless you plan to eat it all in the first day.
Next up, the second episode! Biscuits!
No comments:
Post a Comment