German Chocolate Cake With Coconut Pecan Frosting

Kozmic Blues's Note:

This cake is not for people watching their calories or fat!! But, boy is it good. The recipe came from the Kraft website, and from a recipe I found on the side of a bar of baking chocolate. I made this cake for my parent's birthdays and it was a big hit. Extremely rich, moist and decadent. For the birthdays, I splurged, and used 4 oz. of imported European dark chocolate that I got at Whole Foods, but the regular Bakers chocolate works wonderful as well. I, personally, am not a huge fan of coconut, but the people I made the cake for are. I used "light coconut" which has less fat and looks more finely shredded than regular shredded coconut. I also only used just about 2 cups instead of the full amount the recipe called for. Hope you enjoy!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 35 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 1.0 Cake

For Cake

• 1 (4 ounce) package sweet dark chocolate
• ½ cup water
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter , softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs , separated
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Frosting

• 1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• ¾ cup butter
• 4 egg yolks , slightly beaten
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 (7 ounce) package shredded coconut (about 2-2/3 cups)
• 1 ½ cups chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Grease and flour the bottoms of 3 (9") round cake pans, and line with wax paper.
2. Melt the chocolate and water in bowl over simmering water. (I don't have a double boiler!).
3. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
4. Sift flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
5. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
6. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
7. Stir in chocolate and vanilla.
8. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.
9. Beat egg whites with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.
10. Fold into your batter.
11. Pour evenly into prepared pans.
12. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes (or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean).
13. Immediately run spatula between cakes and sides of pans.
14. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pans.
15. Remove wax paper and cool completely on wire racks.
16. For the frosting:.
17. Place milk, sugar, butter, egg yolks and vanilla in large saucepan.
18. Stirring constantly, cook on medium heat 12 minutes or until thickened and golden brown.
19. Remove from heat.
20. Stir in coconut and pecans.
21. Cool to room temperature and of spreading consistency.
22. Spread the coconut-pecan between each of the layers, and then over top and sides of whole cake.

Reviews

[paagiela]

I made this for a special request from my sister for her birthday. I can't say it's the best german chocolate cake I tasted but it came out pretty good. I couldn't believe I made a cake like this from scratch, even the frosting. I baked the cake in a large 9" cake pan and torted it instead of baking in different pans which took about 20 mins longer to bake. I used the recipe exactly for the frosting and put it in the layers and the top. Then I made a batch of Kittencal's Chocolate Buttercream Frosting #89207 to ice the sides of the cake and decorate like in my picture. The Coconut Pecan frosting amount in the recipe turned out perfect for doing it this way. Everyone liked it because it wasn't too sweet. Definitley worth a try if you like german chocolate cake.

[Chef #1085073]

OMG - baked this for my husband's birthday (GCC is his favorite) he rates this one a 10! Everybody at the party loved the cake - I did toast the coconut and the pecans before adding to the cooked frosting... YUM

[AKillian24]

DH's 36th Birthday was last week and his favorite cake (which I've never made) is German Chocolate. According to DH: This is the best version he's ever tasted! I did 1/2 the recipe (but per the comments kept the full amount of frosting) and used 2 smaller cake pans - so although I'm sure my frosting-to-cake ratio was a bit high, I certainly didn't hear anyone complaining! Notes: I had to let my frosting set in the fridge for about 45 minutes before I could spread it. This cake is even better the follow days after being made... amazing!