What is German Chocolate Cake?

The name German chocolate cake is slightly deceiving since it isn’t actually a German dessert. Traditionally, the cake is a lighter colored cake with a mild chocolate taste made using mildly sweet chocolate.

I wanted to make the the cake more rich and moist, so used my moist chocolate cake recipe. Topped it with the traditional frosting.

How is Coconut Pecan topping made?

This frosting is a little different than the usual frostings. Its thickened with egg yolks. This recipe uses evaporated milk, which i made at home by boiling 500 ml of milk and letting it simmer till it changes colour and reduces to less than half.

The egg yolk, brown sugar, evaporated milk and butter are cooked on medium flame till it thickens. (Watch the eggs, stir continuously so that they dont scramble). Once the mixture is thick and ready toasted pecans and shredded coconut are folded into the mixture. Use once cool.

No evaporated milk? Make it at home

Its super easy to make evaporated milk at home. Evaporated milk is nothing but whole milk which is reduced to almost half. All you have to do to make 250 ml of evaporated milk is- Take 500 ml regular milk in a large heavy bottomed pan. Turn the heat on to medium -low and simmer. Stir occasionally, until the amount of milk has been reduced to half. This should take about 20 minutes.

Liked this recipe? Try my other cake recipes

German Chocolate Cake

Recipe by thecrumbstories

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

The most moist chocolate cake layers filled with delicious coconut pecan frosting. Classic German Chocolate Cake made with a more chocolaty cake.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake
130 g All-purpose flour
150 g Granulated Sugar
50 g Brown Sugar
40 g Cocoa Powder
¾ Tsp Baking Soda
½ Tsp Salt, skip if using salted butter
120 ml Buttermilk
85 g Unsalted Butter, melted
10 ml Oil
1 Egg
1 Tsp Instant Coffee + ½c Hot water or ½ cup Fresh Brewed coffee
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Coconut Pecan Frosting
100 g Evaporated Milk
2 Egg Yolks
130 g Brown Sugar
56 g Unsalted Butter
½ tsp Salt, skip if using Salted Butter
100 g Shredded Coconut
50 g Toasted Pecans / Walnuts, chopped
½ tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions

Chocolate Cake
Preheat the oven to 175C/350F.
In a bowl, add the wet ingredients except coffee and hot water. Beat till combined.
Now, in another bowl, sift all the dry ingredients.
Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Combine well.
Now mix the coffee in hot water and add it to the mixture. Give it a good mix
Grease and line an two 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper. Pour the cake mix into the two equally.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the cakes cool completely before assembling.
For the topping
In a heavy bottomed pan, cook the evaporated milk, egg yolks, brown sugar and butter on low heat.
Stir continuously, to avoid the eggs from scrambling.
Cook the mixture till it thickens, which should take about 7-10 mins.
Once the mixture is thick, remove the pan from the heat.
Fold in the shredded coconut and toasted chopped pecans/walnuts.
Let the frosting cool.
Assembling
Once the chocolate cake and the frosting are cool. To assemble, place one 8 inch cake on a base and top with the coconut frosting
Top a spoonful of the frosting on the cupcake and spread the frosting a little with the help of the spoon.
Drizzle some melted milk or dark chocolate. Enjoy!