German Chocolate Cake

I've been looking at this recipe from the Baked cookbook for awhile, and have really been wanting to try it out. Then, it was my coworkers birthday this week and she requested German Chocolate Cake, so I jumped on it and said it of course! This was quite yummy - Baked did it again!

Ingredients

German Chocolate Cake Layers:
2¼ cups cake flour
¾ cup dark, unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup hot coffee
1 cup buttermilk
1¼ cups (2½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2¼ cups sugar
5 large eggs
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled

Coconut Pecan Filling
1 1/3 cups shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
1 1/3 cup toasted pecans, chopped coarsely

Directions
MAKE THE GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE LAYERS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 8-inch cake pans (I only had 9 inch, so that is what I used and it was fine), line the bottoms with parchment paper, and butter the parchment. Dust with flour, and knock out the excess flour.
Sift the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium mixing bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the coffee and buttermilk. (I don't drink coffee, but I found these little Nescafe one cup pouches for like $1.25)
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. (I just use a handheld mixer, so no paddle attachment for me. I just used the regular beaters and it came out just dandy)Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat to incorporate. The mixture will look light and fluffy.

Add the flour mixture, alternating with the coffee/buttermilk mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the melted chocolate.


Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the rack and remove the pans and let cool completely. Remove the parchment.

MAKE THE COCONUT PECAN FILLING
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread half of the coconut evenly across the pan and place in the oven for 5 minutes or until the coconut begins to brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. (My pecans also needed toasted, so I did them both at the same time. I also didn't realize until after it was in that I was suppose to only toast half the coconut. So, I just let the edges get browned, and took it out before the middle did.)
In a large saucepan, stir together the sugar, butter, evaporated milk, vanilla, and egg yolks. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. After the mixture begins to boil and thicken, remove from the heat and stir in the toasted coconut, regular coconut, and pecans.
Place the pan over an ice bath (a large bowl filled with ice) and stir the mixture until cool. (I didn't have enough ice for all this, so I just did some ice water. :) And I wasn't assembling it until the next day, so I cooled it enough to transfer to another bowl and let it finish cooling there.)

ASSEMBLE THE CAKE
Place one cake layer on a serving platter. Trim the top to create a flat surface and evenly spread one third of the filling on top. Add the next layer, trim and frost with one third of the filling, then add the third layer. Trim the top, and frost with the remaining filling.

This cake is a commitment to make, but was quite delicious. The cake itself was moist and had a crumb texture. The filling is quite amazing. I tried it out when I initially made it to see how it turned out, and ate a couple spoonfuls. :) Because it is three layers it can serve quite a few people!