German Chocolate Birthday Cake Recipe

Nutrition Facts

  • One serving:
  • (1 piece)
  • Calories:
  • 590
  • Fat:
  • 33 g
  • Saturated Fat:
  • 17 g
  • Cholesterol:
  • 154 mg
  • Sodium:
  • 421 mg
  • Carbohydrate:
  • 70 g
  • Fiber:
  • 2 g
  • Protein:
  • 7 g


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German Chocolate Birthday Cake

Taste of Home

This moist, flavorful cake was the traditional birthday cake at our house when I was growing up. Everyone requested it. I especially like the sweet coconut-pecan frosting. —Lisa Andis, Morristown, Indiana

SERVINGS: 12-15

CATEGORY: Dessert

METHOD: Baked

TIME: Prep: 25 min. Bake: 50 min. + cooling

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 1 package (4 ounces) German sweet chocolate
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2-1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • COCONUT-PECAN FROSTING
  • 1 cup evaporated milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1-1/3 cups flaked coconut
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Let eggs stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Line a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan with waxed paper. Grease and flour the paper; set aside.
    In a saucepan, melt chocolate in water over low heat; cool. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add chocolate mixture and vanilla; mix well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. In a small mixing bowl and with clean beaters, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; fold into batter.
    Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Remove waxed paper.
    For frosting, combine the milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter and vanilla in a large saucepan; cook and stir over medium heat until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Beat until frosting is cool and achieves spreading consistency. Place cake on a serving platter; spread frosting over top and sides. Yield: 12-15 servings.


  • Re: German Chocolate Birthday Cake

    In the late 1950s my grandmother clipped from a newspaper a recipe for German Chocolate Cake. It was new to her, but being of German ancestry she decided to try it. It was a sensation with her family and became the most-requested cake she baked.

    Years later, we learned the history of the cake and it turns out that it was a craze that started in Texas and wasn't German at all, except that it was made with German's Sweet Chocolate, a brand named after its inventor whose last name was actually German (if his last name had been France, I guess it would have been called "French" Chocolate Cake).

    Anyway, the above recipe for a single-layer rectangular cake is my favorite version. My family members have been known to argue about who gets the outside pieces because they have the most frosting.

    FriedaG
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