German Chocolate Cake and Pretty Shoes

Birthdays, birthdays, and more birthdays! My kitchen aid mixer is working hard this month baking up goodies! My brother in law's birthday just recently passed this past weekend and he requested a German chocolate cake, a cake I've never made. So I was pretty excited to bake something new!

Also, my past week has been pretty crazy with a major layoff at work and over 1/3 of our staff facing unemployment. They are all definitely in my thoughts and I hope the best for all of them. So to calm my nerves and seek some relaxation, I gladly took this opportunity to bake and treat myself to some pretty shoes :). Both are pictured below. I felt my new buy matched my new cake, how perfect! I have absolutely no self-control when it come to pretty and shiny shoes...

I began first with making the coconut and pecan custard filling, so that it would cool for a couple of hours and thicken. Then I made my chocolate cake with Baker's German chocolate. I did not frost the sides of the cake because I thought the effect of the custard peeking out through the layers gave the cake more depth and more of a tower effect. Isn't it purrrrtyyy?!?

German Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS:

Cake layers
- 4 oz. Baker's German chocolate, roughly broken into pieces
- 2 1/4 c. cake flour
- 3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 1 c. strong vanilla coffee, brewed
- 1 c. buttermilk
- 1 1/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
- 2 c. sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Filling
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 c. sugar
- 1/4 c. brown sugar
- 3/4 c. unsalted butter
- 1 (7 oz.) package sweetened coconut
- 1 1/2 c. chopped pecans
- candied pecans for garnish

For cake layers:

Preheat oven to 350* and line 3 round cake pans with parchment paper. Spray pans with butter and dust with cocoa powder, shaking off excess.

In a double boiler**, melt chocolate. Remove from heat and cool in the fridge.

**create a double boiler by placing a clean, dry bowl on top of a pot of boiling water**

In a bowl, whisk cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large measuring cup whisk together coffee, buttermilk, and vanilla.

In your mixer, beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down bowl after each addition. Add flour, on a lower speed, alternatively with coffee/buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Turn off mixer, remove bowl, and fold in the melted chocolate.

Divide batter between the 3 pans and bake 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Once cool, remove cakes and let cool completely on wire racks. Let cool completely before adding the filling.

For filling:

Toast coconut and pecans in oven until coconut is lightly golden in color.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, whisk together egg yolks, evaporated milk, and vanilla. Add sugars and butter. Stir often until thickened. Turn off heat. Stir in coconut and pecans and let cool. I put my filling in the fridge to thicken and cool.

To assemble the cake, I filled each layer with a 1/3 of filling and topped the top layer with candied pecans.

ENJOY!