Don't Let The Name Fool You

For family vacation this year, we went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA. It's a theme park based on six countries in Europe - Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Germany, and Italy. My dad got a slice of German chocolate cake in Germany, and he commented on how there should be chocolate frosting on the sides rather than a little bit on the top. Since his birthday was August 2, I baked him a German chocolate cake with frosing on the sides.

German chocolate cake isn't a German dessert, as the name suggests. It got its name because it uses German's chocolate, and somehow when the recipe came into print, the s was dropped. Fascinating, no? This is my second attempt in my life at a layer cake. A traditional German chocolate cake is three layers; however, I went with two layers. Note - do not cut the cake recipe! I adjusted the recipe by using 2/3 of the ingredients listed. It made two very thin layers. I would just use what the recipe says and just make two thick layers. Plus the cake part wasn't tasty with my adjustments. The coconut-pecan filling is very, very rich from the canned milk, so make sure you serve the cake in tiny slices.

German Chocolate Cake




For the cake layers, I used the recipe that came with the German's chocolate box (made by Baker's Chocolate). It is replicated here. The only difference in the ingredient list is the box calls for 2 cups all-purpose flour and the site calls for cake flour. Then for the filling and frosting, I used this recipe because I had sweetened, condensed milk, not evaporated milk. The filling makes alot. The frosting I cut because I was only frosting the sides. I used half a bag of semisweet chocolate chips (I would prefer dark chocolate), 1 tablespoon corn syrup, and 4 tablespoons butter. I think the corn syrup is used to make it more spreadable, so if you don't have it, maybe you could use milk?