German Chocolate

German Chocolate Quartet

Every year I make German Chocolate Cake for my Dad's Birthday.  Happy Birthday Dad, I love you.  It is his favorite cake. This year I wanted to change things up a bit and do German Chocolate four ways.

German Chocolate Cake

• 1 bar (4 ounces) German Sweet Cooking Chocolate – chopped up
• ½ cup boiling water, add to chocolate and stir until melted, then set aside.
• 4 egg whites and a pinch of salt, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, then set aside
• Cream together
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks) room temperature or softened
• Add one at a time
• 4 egg yolks.
• Add melted chocolate.
• Add together in a separate bowl 
• 2 and ½ cups cake flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• Alternate adding dry ingredients with
• 1 cup buttermilk
• Mix all that together and at the end gently fold in the 4 egg whites.
• Bake at 325 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes.  
• The cake above is from one 6" cake pan.

German Chocolate Cupcakes 

• Bake at 325 for 15 minutes for cupcakes. The whole recipe makes about 40 cupcakes.
• I made 2 dozen cupcakes.

Coconut-Pecan Frosting – for German Chocolate Cake

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• ½ cup butter (1 stick)
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla
• In the medium sauce pan on medium-high heat stir together until it begins to boil.  Boil for 10-12 minutes as it gradually thickens.  When it is thick add:
• 1 and 1/3 cup coconut flakes
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• Stir that in and set pan aside to cool.

Chocolate Frosting

• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 and 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tbs cocoa powder
• Whip together until smooth, adding more powdered sugar or heavy whipping cream as needed until it has a the right consistency.

 German Chocolate Cake Pops

• Using one cake from a 6" cake pan
• Pull the cake apart and crumble into small pieces.
• Add about 1 cup chocolate frosting to the cake and knead together until it can form a ball
• Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop out cake/frosting and roll into small balls with your hands.  Freeze or refrigerate for 10+ minutes until firm.
• Melt some Chocolate Candy Melts 30 seconds at a time in a microwave, stirring in between times until the chocolate is all melted and smooth.
• Dip the end of a lollipop stick in the chocolate, then stick it into the center of a cake pop and return to the fridge or freezer to set for 10+ minutes.  This keeps the stick from sliding out as you dip it.
• Dip Cake Pops in chocolate candy melts
• While the chocolate is still warm cover with left over chopped walnuts and coconut.
• I made about a dozen cake pops.

 German Chocolate Macaroons

• Food processor for a few pulses
• 3/4 cup almond meal or almond flour
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tbs cocoa powder
• In a separate bowl add 
• 3 eggs whites - left over from coconut pecan frosting
• a pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup superfine sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Add superfine sugar 1 Tbs at a time to egg whites while beating until they form a smooth, glossy, ribbon like consistency
• Sift almond flour/powdered sugar/cocoa mixture and gently fold into egg whites in batches 
• Pipe out small circles for cookies on a parchment paper covered baking sheet
• Sprinkle on left over coconut and chopped pecans
• Let the cookies rest for 30 min at room temperature while pre-heating the oven.
• Bake cookies on 2 overlapped baking sheets for 10 - 15 min at 325 degrees.  
• This made about 15 cookies

Chocolate Ganache Filling

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream, quickly bring it to a boil in a medium sauce pan
• 12 ounces or 1 package of mini-chocolate chips
• Pour hot cream over chocolate chips and stir until it is all uniformly melted.
• Store in fridge or freezer for it to thicken/harden 
• Pipe or spoon out filling onto macaroon cookies

A quartet of all things German Chocolate Cake.
Enjoy.