German Chocolate Cake
Birthday cakes of 2019 continue!
To get you all up to speed: Orange Dream Cake (Jan), Lemon and Chocolate Cheesecakes (Feb; not made by me as it's my b-day month), Verry Berry Cake (March), and Triple Chocolate Cake (April); no birthdays in May.
I know I recently posted about my triple chocolate cake, but one of the June birthday folks was very adamant that I make a German Chocolate cake, so I didn't have much of a choice.
There's a whole history about this cake you can read about (tldr: the name is from the originator, Samuel German, not the country), but I'm gonna focus on the recipe itself.
If you're a super hard-core purist when it comes to German Chocolate cake you might not be happy with some of the changes in this recipe. It uses a darker chocolate (instead of the sweeter Bakers German's chocolate) and it cuts down the sugar. The method of preparing the cake is also a bit different (whole eggs instead of separating the whites and folding the whipped whites back in). I then took it a step further and toasted most of the coconut to further deepen the flavor and cut back the super sweet flavor a bit.
The cake is still recognizably German chocolate, so I hope you're like me and will love all the changes in this recipe. I found it still a bit on the sweeter side, but it was absolutely delicious! Many people deemed it the best German chocolate cake they'd had.
The chocolate + coconut + pecan is an incredible combination, and it was one of the most popular cakes I've made all year. I'm obsessed with the filling of this cake, and I think that making a "dip" with the filling that you can eat with chocolate wafers would be an awesome treat. (German chocolate cake Dunkaroos anyone??)
German chocolate cake is often served nekked, with just extra filling on top and no frosting on the sides. I had done that at first but I didn't feel like the cake looked special enough for a birthday celebration as my sides had cracked during the assembly.
So I whipped up an easy frosting for the side and swirleys on top. It's not necessary though, so feel free to skip the extra frosting if you're looking for a simpler rustic cake.
Buen provecho,
Jacqueline
German Chocolate Cake, from Cooks Illustrated (frosting by me, using inspiration from Smitten Kitchen and Life Love and Sugar)
When you assemble the cake, the filling should be cool or cold (or room temperature, at the very warmest). To be time-efficient, first make the filling, then use the refrigeration time to prepare, bake, and cool the cakes. The toasted pecans are stirred into the filling just before assembly to keep them from becoming soft and soggy.
If you want to stretch this over a few days: I made the filling (sans pecans) and cake layers on day 1, and then made frosting, assembled, and frosted on day 2.
Ingredients
Filling
4 egg yolks
1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
¼ cup packed light or dark brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
6 TBSP unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into 6 pieces
⅛ tsp table salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ⅓ cups sweetened shredded coconut (7 ounces) optional: toast 3/4 of the coconut for a deeper flavor (reserve a tablespoon of the non-toasted coconut for decorating the top of the cake)
1 ½ cups finely chopped pecans (6 1/2 ounces), toasted on baking sheet in 350-degree oven until fragrant and browned, about 8 minutes
Cake
4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
¼ cup Dutch-processed or regular cocoa, sifted
½ cup boiling water
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces), plus additional for dusting cake pans
¾ tsp baking soda
12 TBSP unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
⅔ cup packed light or dark brown sugar (about 4 3/4 ounces)
¾ tsp table salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup sour cream, room temperature
Frosting
Directions
To get you all up to speed: Orange Dream Cake (Jan), Lemon and Chocolate Cheesecakes (Feb; not made by me as it's my b-day month), Verry Berry Cake (March), and Triple Chocolate Cake (April); no birthdays in May.
I know I recently posted about my triple chocolate cake, but one of the June birthday folks was very adamant that I make a German Chocolate cake, so I didn't have much of a choice.
There's a whole history about this cake you can read about (tldr: the name is from the originator, Samuel German, not the country), but I'm gonna focus on the recipe itself.
If you're a super hard-core purist when it comes to German Chocolate cake you might not be happy with some of the changes in this recipe. It uses a darker chocolate (instead of the sweeter Bakers German's chocolate) and it cuts down the sugar. The method of preparing the cake is also a bit different (whole eggs instead of separating the whites and folding the whipped whites back in). I then took it a step further and toasted most of the coconut to further deepen the flavor and cut back the super sweet flavor a bit.
The cake is still recognizably German chocolate, so I hope you're like me and will love all the changes in this recipe. I found it still a bit on the sweeter side, but it was absolutely delicious! Many people deemed it the best German chocolate cake they'd had.
The chocolate + coconut + pecan is an incredible combination, and it was one of the most popular cakes I've made all year. I'm obsessed with the filling of this cake, and I think that making a "dip" with the filling that you can eat with chocolate wafers would be an awesome treat. (German chocolate cake Dunkaroos anyone??)
German chocolate cake is often served nekked, with just extra filling on top and no frosting on the sides. I had done that at first but I didn't feel like the cake looked special enough for a birthday celebration as my sides had cracked during the assembly.
So I whipped up an easy frosting for the side and swirleys on top. It's not necessary though, so feel free to skip the extra frosting if you're looking for a simpler rustic cake.
Buen provecho,
Jacqueline
German Chocolate Cake, from Cooks Illustrated (frosting by me, using inspiration from Smitten Kitchen and Life Love and Sugar)
When you assemble the cake, the filling should be cool or cold (or room temperature, at the very warmest). To be time-efficient, first make the filling, then use the refrigeration time to prepare, bake, and cool the cakes. The toasted pecans are stirred into the filling just before assembly to keep them from becoming soft and soggy.
If you want to stretch this over a few days: I made the filling (sans pecans) and cake layers on day 1, and then made frosting, assembled, and frosted on day 2.
Ingredients
Filling
4 egg yolks
1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
¼ cup packed light or dark brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
6 TBSP unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into 6 pieces
⅛ tsp table salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ⅓ cups sweetened shredded coconut (7 ounces) optional: toast 3/4 of the coconut for a deeper flavor (reserve a tablespoon of the non-toasted coconut for decorating the top of the cake)
1 ½ cups finely chopped pecans (6 1/2 ounces), toasted on baking sheet in 350-degree oven until fragrant and browned, about 8 minutes
Cake
4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
¼ cup Dutch-processed or regular cocoa, sifted
½ cup boiling water
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces), plus additional for dusting cake pans
¾ tsp baking soda
12 TBSP unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
⅔ cup packed light or dark brown sugar (about 4 3/4 ounces)
¾ tsp table salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup sour cream, room temperature
Frosting
3 sticks butter, softened
3 oz dark chocolate
3-4 cups powdered sugar (I used 3.5 cups; use more if you like it sweeter)
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup cocoa powder
3 TBSP milk
Directions
- FOR THE FILLING: Whisk yolks in medium saucepan; gradually whisk in evaporated milk. Add sugars, butter, and salt and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is boiling, frothy, and slightly thickened, about 6 to 9 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl, whisk in vanilla, then stir in coconut. Cool until just warm, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cool or cold, at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. (Pecans are stirred in just before cake assembly.)
- FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine chocolate and cocoa in small bowl; pour boiling water over and let stand to melt chocolate, about 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth; set aside until cooled to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, spray two 9-inch-round by 2-inch-high straight-sided cake pans with nonstick cooking spray; line bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray paper rounds, dust pans with flour, and knock out excess.
- Sift flour and baking soda into medium bowl.
- In bowl of standing mixer, beat butter, sugars, and salt at medium-low speed until sugar is moistened, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula halfway through.
- With mixer running at medium speed, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down bowl halfway through. Beat in vanilla; increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 45 seconds.
- With mixer running at low speed, add chocolate, then increase speed to medium and beat until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down bowl once (batter may appear broken).
- With mixer running at low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream (in 2 additions), beginning and ending with dry ingredients, and beating in each addition until barely combined. After final flour addition, beat on low until just combined, then stir batter by hand with rubber spatula, scraping bottom and sides of bowl, to ensure that batter is homogenous (batter will be thick).
- Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans; spread batter to edges of pans with rubber spatula and smooth surfaces.
- Bake cakes until toothpick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes, then invert cakes onto greased wire rack; peel off and discard paper rounds. Cool cakes to room temperature before filling, about 1 hour. (Cooled cakes can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.)
- FOR THE FROSTING: Using stand mixer or hand mixer, beat butter until smooth. Add half of the powdered sugar and mix. Add vanilla extract, cocoa powder, and milk; mix until smooth. Add remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
- TO ASSEMBLE: Instructions below are for the cake with frosting. If you're going for a rustic cake sans frosting, just add the remainder of the filling on top of the 4th cake layer in step 15.
- Stir toasted pecans into chilled filling. Cut each cake in 2 even layers so you have 4 layers of cake (a bread knife or serrated knife works best for this).
- Start assembling the cake. Spread 1 cup of filling evenly over each layer of cake, leaving ~1/4" to 1/2" without filling on the edges of each cake layer. Set aside the ~1 cup of filling left over after you've assembled all the layers. (Starting from the bottom you'll have cake1, filling, cake2, filling, cake3, filling, cake4).
- Frost the sides and top of the cake with a small amount of frosting (ie, crumb coat), and refrigerate until firm. Frost sides and top with additional frosting, smoothing out with a bench scraper until smooth.
- Spread the remaining filling on top of the cake.
- Pipe rosettes or other decorations on the top of the cake. Sprinkle with a bit of coconut in the center.
- Refrigerate the cake up to 1 day; if refrigerating longer than 2 hours, let cake stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
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