GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

This is “CAKE WEEK”—aren’t we all lucky!!  Here is a great cake to make for your crew.  Make it into cupcakes or it makes 3 layers with enough filling for a generous portion in between each layer and for on the top—which is the typical way to frost a german chocolate cake.  The chocolate ganache is for drizzling around the edge of the top layer and then let it drip down the sides—Yummy!!

German chocolate is not from Germany at all (sorry).  It is named after an employee of the Bakers Chocolate Company who decided to add sugar to baking chocolate as a convenience to consumers  and his name was Samuel German.  If you can’t find “german chocolate”  baking squares in the baking aisle of your grocery store, just use unsweetened baking squares and add 4 teaspoons of sugar per one ounce square.

Ingredients:

4 ounces of German sweet Chocolate

½ cup water

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter(2 sticks), softened

4 eggs, separated

2 t. vanilla

2 and ½ cups cake flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 cup buttermilk

Instructions:

*Heat chocolate baking squares with water in a saucepan until melted.  Set aside to cool.

*With and electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

*Beat in egg yolks.

*Add cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla.

*In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.

*Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. 

*In  a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.  Fold into batter.

*Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans (or greased and lined with parchment).

*Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

*Cool for 5-7 minutes and remove from pan

*Prepare filling.

Filling:

1 and ½  cups sugar

1 can evaporated milk

1 and ½ sticks butter

4 egg yolks, beaten

2 t. vanilla

2 and 1/3 cups coconut (or more)

1 and ½ cups finely chopped pecans

Instructions:

*In a saucepan, place sugar, milk, butter, and egg yolks.  Cook over medium heat until thickened (approximately 10 minutes) and golden.

*Remove from heat and add vanilla, coconut and pecans.

*Cool to room temperature and of spreading consistency.

*Spread between layers and across the top of the assembled cake.

*Prepare Ganache

Ganache:

2 t. shortening

1 ounce (1 square) of semi-sweet baking chocolate

Instructions:

*Melt shortening with chocolate.

*Drizzle around edge of top layer and down the sides of the cake.

Note:  If you make cupcakes instead of the three layers, make sure you spray your muffin tins with PAM (even the top of the tin) and that you use cupcake liners.  Also, do not overfill the tins---since the cake will rise and spill over.