Happy Birthday....

to my husband Dave. So since I am on the move to make eating changes and this was the first birthday this year that I would need a cake for that was not store bought, I wanted to come up with something good. The flavor or style of cake was an easy choice, my husband loves German Chocolate Cake and thus began my hunt for a great recipe. I generally look for recipes one that have 4+ stars or many positive reviews. After a few clicks and recipes that were off or just didn’t even sound tasty to me, I found this one from Food.com. Of course as per my usual m.o. I end up changing the recipe and will probably change it next time too, this usually happens because I am either out of an ingredient or they have some awful pre-made crap added to the recipe. My reason for the upgrade this time though was a can of Condensed Milk that when opened smelled like rotten fish….eeeewwwww. I had it in the sauce pan and had already added in the sugar when the smell caught my nose, now I am not sure if it smelled this way because of it possibly being spoiled or milk in a can smells like that….eeeeewwww. So I decided a bit of my whole raw milk and some half and half was the closest I would get to a thicker milk and replaced the icky canned stuff.

German Chocolate Cake

For Cake

1 (4 ounce) package sweet dark chocolate (here I used chocolate chips that I found at Costco, they are 51% Cacao and have way lesser ingredients than other chocolate chips and I did not have any other sweet dark chocolate in the house.)
1/2 cup water
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 cup buttermilk (no buttermilk in the house so I took my whole milk and added a tablespoon of white vinegar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Frosting

9 ounces whole milk and 3 ounces half and half (I think 12 ounces of regular milk will work fine too)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
4 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (7 ounce) package shredded coconut (about 2-2/3 cups)
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Directions:I used cooking spray for 3 (9″) round cake pans.
Melt the chocolate and water in bowl over simmering water. (I don’t have a double boiler!).
Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

Sift flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.Stir in chocolate and vanilla.
Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.

Beat egg whites with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.Fold into your batter.

Pour evenly into prepared pans.

Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes (or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean).Immediately run spatula between cakes and sides of pans.
Cool 15 minutes; remove from pans.and cool completely on wire racks.

For the frosting:.Place milk, sugar, butter, egg yolks and vanilla in large saucepan.
Stirring constantly, cook on medium heat 12 minutes or until thickened and golden brown.
I literally did not stop stirring this and by about 12 minutes or so it was beginning to thicken and got thicker as it cooled a bit.
Remove from heat.Stir in coconut and pecans.
Cool to room temperature and of spreading consistency.
Spread the coconut-pecan between each of the layers, and then over top and then I just let it fall down the sides of the cake a bit but mostly kept it to the top and in between the layers.

Holy crap this was a fantastic cake. I am not usually a fan of German Chocolate Cake, but I could have eaten many slices of this but part of my eating habit change is moderation along with all this homemade goodness.