German Chocolate Cake

Cake Ingredients:
1 (4-oz.) package of Baker's Sweetened Chocolate
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
4 eggs whites
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk

Cake Directions

1. Take one package of Baker's sweetened chocolate and mix it with 1/2 cup of boiling water. You are done mixing the chocolate once it is all dissolved (as seen in the lower left picture). Let this cool before adding it to the mixture in step four. You will want to go ahead and preheat the oven to 350F so it will be ready when you need it.

2. Mix 1 cup of butter with 2 cups of sugar until they are fluffy and rich. This should not take but a few minutes.

3. Slowly add in your egg yolks while beating the mixture. Once no more streaks or spots of yellow remain they have been mixed in well enough.

4. Add Chocolate liquid and 1 teaspoon vanilla after the egg yolk is completely mixed in to the batter.

5. It is important to sift the flour in order to remove all the lumps. This is the time when you add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the flour. You may want to do step nine now so that you don't have your cake batter sitting out of the oven too long.

6. Add the milk and flour to the mixture at the same time, but alternating between the two (milk, flour, milk, flour...) Don't stop mixing as you do this. Once you are done beating in the milk and flour, make sure that it is smooth.

7. If you have never beaten egg whites before; it can be tricky, so pay close attention.
Take your four egg whites and beat them at a high speed. When you lift the beater out of the bowl it should have a peak, or pointed tip at the end of it. This means they are done being whipped. They should look exactly like the ones in the lower left picture of this step. This process should take about 5 minutes.
You will want to move quickly on to the next step to keep the egg white fluffy.
Make sure that there is no egg yolk mixed into your egg whites.

8. Now fold in your egg whites SLOWLY. DO NOT STIR OR BEAT THEM IN!! This would ruin the cake!

9. Use a knife, or a pen to mark a sheet of wax paper around the exterior of the pan. Then cut on the line you just drew. Coat the inside of the pan with shortening. Then put flour on the inside and shake it till the sides and bottom are covered with flour. Then put the cut wax paper in the bottom of the pan.
Do this for each of the three cake pans.

10. Pour equal amounts of batter into each 8 inch cake pan.

11. Put the cakes in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. Do not open the oven until the cake has been in for the required time, if you do it will fall in the middle. Stick a tooth pick in your cake after baking. If it comes out clean your cake is done, if it comes out gooey then it needs another five to ten minutes.

12. Once your cake layers have cooled for 15 minutes you will need to remove them from their cake pans. Using a knife, or a spatula like the one seen in the picture to the left, cut the cake away from the sides of the cake pan. Then flip it over on a cooling rack and remove the wax paper from the bottom.


Frosting Ingredients
For this frosting recipe you will need:
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 beaten egg yolks
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cup Baker's Angel Flake Coconut
1 cup chopped pecans (roasted)

Frosting Directions
1. Mix the following ingredients on a stove set on medium heat for 12 minutes:
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 beaten egg yolks
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

2. Once you are done stirring in the above ingredients add the coconut and roasted pecans. Once it is mixed in it should look like the picture to the left.

3. Cool the frosting until it is firm and easy to spread.

4. To frost the cake, divide the frosting into three separate, but equal parts. If you made a double batch make sure you divide your frosting in half before doing this. Then pour one of the thirds onto the first layer, or as much as needed to frost the top so that the top is completely covered.

5. To add other layers carefully slide them onto the last frosted one.

6. Repeat with next two layers.

7. Unlike some cakes this one does not need instructions on how to frost the sides. All I can say is just slap it on and make it stick. It does not need to be perfectly smooth. Refrigerate the cake for some time after frosting to keep the frosting from sliding off. After this, you shouldn't have to refrigerate it.