Happy Birthday Dean!

A few days before Dean's birthday, I asked him what cake he would like. He responded by requesting a poppyseed cake with penuche frosting or German chocolate. While at the store shopping for ingredients, Greg wanted to make the latter. The one and only time I have made chocolate cake from scratch was 2 years ago. The flavor was good but it was very dense, a small piece went a long way. So my goal this time around was to make a lighter in texture cake. Greg and I picked up the green Baker's chocolate box and bought the ingredients on the back side. This would be a first time making a frosting that didn't include cream cheese or confectioner sugar.

When we got home, we organized the ingredients, preheated the oven, got out the Kitchen aide mixer and began to make the cake. (Yes, I was checking off the back of the box as I went along in the store).

Original BAKER'S GERMAN'S Sweet Chocolate Cake
Recipe for the cake:

1 pkg. (4 oz.) BAKER'S GERMAN'S Sweet Chocolate

1/2 cup water

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, separated

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup buttermilk (As we bought a quart of buttermilk, it left us wondering what we were going to do with the other 3 cups. Upon opening the green box at home, there was a tip regarding buttermlik. After reading I recall having heard it before. A substitute for buttermilk is to have a cup of regular milk and add 1 Tbsp. of lemon juice or vinegar to cup of milk and let sit for 10 minutes.)

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Cover bottoms of 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with wax paper; grease sides of pans. Microwave chocolate and water in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

MIX 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. Blend in melted chocolate and the vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beating until well blended after each addition. So far so good! Greg usually does the dry ingredients while I do the wet and we work together to combine the two.

BEAT egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir into batter. Pour evenly into prepared pans. "What are those white lumps?" you may be asking yourself. That would be the 'stiff peak' egg whites which were a little too stiff. Who knew one could over beat egg whites?? We didn't realize they were over beaten until after we had put it into the batter. Instead of being nice and silky and smooth, it was clumpy and making a crunch sound as we tried folding the egg whites into the batter. So needless to say, we learned something that day. :)

BAKE 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Immediately run small metal spatula around cake layers in pans. Cool in pans 15 min.; remove layers from pans to wire racks. Remove and discard wax paper. Cool cake layers completely. Spread Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting between cake layers and onto top of cake.

We only had 2 8-inch round pans so we got out the spring-form pan for the remainder of the batter. So in the end, we had 2 cakes. 1 single layer cake and the double layer we presented to Dean as his birthday cake.

Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting
Recipe for frosting:

4 egg yolks

1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk

1-1/2 tsp. vanilla

1-1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine

1 pkg. (7 oz.) Coconut flakes (about 2-2/3 cups)

1-1/2 cups Chopped Pecans

BEAT egg yolks, milk and vanilla in large saucepan with wire whisk until well blended. Add sugar and butter; cook on medium heat 12 min. or until thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

ADD coconut and pecans; mix well. Cool to room temperature and of desired spreading consistency.

"Cool to room temperature and of desired spreading consistency." Yeah... that never happened. I cooked the frosting on medium heat for 12 minutes as instructed. This being the first time to make it, it appeared to be a little runny but I assumed it would thicken up nicely after the addition of the coconut and pecans. It never thickened up. I ended up using a slotted spoon so the cake would not become soggy.

Sad, soupy looking frosting. :(

The 2nd cake I took to a church activity as we have plenty of the 1st cake left over and birthday cookies that are being sent off to Lindsie today. It must've been ok since it was the first thing to disappear from the food spread.

Dean seemed to enjoy it still!

Finished product

In the end, Greg and I were able to learn a few things from this baking project that we will never forget! I accomplished one goal, as it was a much lighter cake than 2 years ago, but there is always room for improvement.