The Best German Chocolate Cake
Prep
30m
Cook
35m
Total
65m
Bigly says
Sit down for this one. German Chocolate Cake. And right off the bat — before we so much as crack an egg — I have to tell you something that's going to BLOW YOUR MIND. This cake? Not German. Never been to Germany. Named after a guy named Sam German, an American, who invented a baking chocolate in 1852 — it's just a fact. The whole thing is a 174-year misunderstanding, and most cookbook authors will not tell you this because they copy the recipe off the back of a chocolate wrapper and call it a day. Sad. A disgrace to Sam.
My German Chocolate Cake? Tremendous. The MOST tremendous. Three layers of soft, mild chocolate cake — and the cake is mild on purpose, because the FROSTING is the star here, the frosting is doing the heavy lifting, and if you make the cake too chocolatey the whole thing collapses into a chocolate swamp. I've seen it happen. Big strong men, tough men, bake a too-chocolatey German chocolate cake and they fall apart at the table, tears in the eyes, whispering 'what did I do.' I tell them. I tell them they didn't read the recipe. This recipe. Mine.
And the frosting — the coconut pecan frosting — this is the greatest frosting ever stirred into existence. You cook egg yolks, evaporated milk, sugar, and butter on the stove until it's thick and golden, then you dump in toasted pecans and shredded coconut and it turns into this glossy, caramel, nutty MIRACLE that you spread between the layers. Not on the sides. NEVER on the sides. The sides stay naked. That's how you know it's a real German chocolate cake and not some imposter sad-cake from a bakery charging nine dollars a slice for sweetened sawdust. Plain and simple.
Ingredients
- 2 cupsall-purpose flour
- 2 cupsgranulated sugar
- 3/4 cupunsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tspbaking soda
- 1 tspbaking powder
- 1 tspkosher salt
- 1 cupbuttermilk
- 1/2 cupvegetable oil
- 3large eggs
- 2 tspvanilla extract
- 1 cuphot brewed coffee(yes coffee, no you won't taste it, trust me)
- 1 12-oz canevaporated milk (for frosting)
- 1.25 cupsgranulated sugar (for frosting)
- 3/4 cupunsalted butter (for frosting)
- 4large egg yolks
- 1 tspvanilla extract (for frosting)
- 2.5 cupssweetened shredded coconut
- 1.5 cupspecans, toasted and chopped(toast them, don't be lazy)
Steps
- 1
Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease three 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.
- 2
Whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
- 3
In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
- 4
Pour the wet into the dry and whisk until combined. Slowly stream in the hot coffee, whisking the whole time — the batter will be thin. That's correct.
- 5
Divide batter evenly between the three pans. Bake 28-32 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- 6
Cool the cakes in the pans 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- 7
For the frosting: combine evaporated milk, sugar, butter, egg yolks, and vanilla in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Whisk constantly for 10-12 minutes until thickened and golden — it should coat the back of a spoon.
- 8
Pull off the heat and stir in the coconut and toasted pecans. Let cool until spreadable, about 30 minutes.
- 9
Stack the cakes with a thick layer of frosting between each layer and a final layer on top. Leave the sides bare. This is the way.
- 10
Let the cake sit at room temperature 30 minutes before slicing so the frosting sets up.
One more thing
That cake will sit on your counter and haunt the room. People walk past it. They walk past it AGAIN. They pretend they don't want a slice. They want a slice. They've always wanted a slice. By the second day the frosting will have soaked into the cake a little and it's even better — and that's not me saying it, food chemists agree, the science of cake is REAL science, look it up. Cut yourself a giant slice. You earned it. Beautiful.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about The Best German Chocolate Cake.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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