German Chocolate Cake

Yesterday, my coworker's son graduated from college.  She threw a great little party and requested a German Chocolate cake for the occasion.  Now, at that point I'd never had German chocolate cake, much less made one, but I do have my evertrue Better Homes and Garden cookbook which has yet to steer me wrong.

Kitchen Lesson No. 1:  Always carefully and completely read a recipe before you begin.  You never want to get to the end of your baking adventure and realize that the recipe only calls for frosting the top of the cake layers and not the side when you had anticipated total icing.  That leaves you scrambling for a solution.  That being said, it did lead me to do something I hadn't originally planned but which worked great!  After doing some googling, I saw a few cakes that had the coconut frosting on the top with chocolate on the sides.  It looked classy and delicious and I'm very happy with the end result.  

German Chocolate Cake
(BH&G New Cookbook, pg 166)
 
Chocolate Cake

• 1 4-oz package sweet baking chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla

Coconut-Pecan Frosting

• 1 egg
• 1 5-oz can evaporated milk
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/3  cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Chocolate Frosting

• 8 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 tbsp light corn syrup
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1  cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup cornstarch

For the cake:

In a small saucepan, combine chocolate and milk.  Cook adn stir  over low heat until melted; set aside to cool.  

Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, grease the bottom of two 8x8" square pans or 9" round cake pans.  Line the bottoms with wax paper; then, grease and lightly flour the pans.  Alternatively, you can just grease a 13x9 inch baking pan.  Set the pans aside.  In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.  Gradually add the sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed after each addition until well combined (about 3 minutes).  Scrape the sides of the bowl; continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes more.  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition (about 1 minute total).  Beat in vanilla.  Alternately add flour and chocolate mixtures to the butter mixture, beating on low speed after each additional just until combined.  beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more.  Spread batter evenly into the prepared pans.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes for the 8" pans,  30 to 35 minutes for the 9" pans, or 40 to 45 minutes for the 13x9" pan, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool cake layers in pans on wire racks for  10 minutes.  Remove cake layers from pans.  Peel off waxed paper.  Cool thoroughly on racks.  Or place 13x9 cake in pan on wire rack and cool completely.

For the Coconut-Pecan Filling:

In a medium saucepan, slightly beat the egg.  Stir in the evaporated milk, sugar, and butter.  Cook and stir over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, until thickened and bubbly.  Remove from heat; stir in coconut flakes and pecans.  Cover and cool thoroughly before using.  

For the Chocolate Frosting:

Combine chocolate, corn syrup, and butter in a medium bowl.  Heat cream until just boiling.  Remove from heat and pour over chocolate.  Let stand for one minute, then stir.  Let sit til room temperature.  Sift cornstarch over frosting, a tablespoon at a time, and mix in until you get a thick enough consistency to frost with.  (When I made this frosting, it wasn't thick enough to stay on the cake (it dripped a bit), so I added cornstarch as a quick fix to get it thick enough.) Classy, I know.

Assembly:

Set the first cake layer on cake plate/round/whatever you desire.  Pipe a 1/4 inch thick border of chocolate frosting around the very edge; this will act as a dam to keep your coconut filling from oozing out the sides.  Spread half of the coconut filling within your chocolate border.  Set the next cake layer on top.  Again, pipe a chocolate frosting border along the edge of the cake.  Spread the other half of the coconut filling on top, trying to get it as level as possible.  Pipe a decorative border on top of the coconut filling dam.  Frost the sides of the cake.   

Slice and enjoy! 

May 2011 Daring Cooks Challenge: Gumbo

Our May hostess, Denise, of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.

Okay, I must admit I was a bit amused when I learned this month's challenge was gumbo having grown up in the heart of Cajun country.  But I have been meaning to learn to make a seafood gumbo (instead of my beloved chicken and sausage), so this challenge gave me the opportunity to finally do so.  Unfortunately, my head is POUNDING right now (which I suspect is the result of my discovering the tastiness of the pina colada this afternoon.)

Now, I don't want to be a Negative Norton, and this was a good gumbo, but John Besh's recipe was super counter-intuitive to me.  Perhaps that's how they make gumbos in New Orleans, not in Cajun country.  BUT I have finally had seafood gumbo and used the shrimp heads/shells that have been hanging out in my freezer for months.  YAAY!   

*****
Edit:


Now that my headache has cleared, I'd like to explain a bit more.    In my quest to make my first gumbo, I spoke to many people about technique.  Everyone I spoke to said the same basic thing.  First you make your roux, then you whisk in your liquids and let that boil for at least an hour before adding anything else.  Only after that hour do you add your veggies and meats.  Then that boils for at least an hour longer, though usually much longer.  With Besh's recipe, the roux is made, then the veggies are slowly added, then the meats, then the liquid is added as the last step.  Having had horrible failure occur when my roux and liquid didn't come together, I was TERRIFIED that this would happen again and that unlike previous times, I wouldn't be able to just toss out the roux and start over again.  Everything was already in the pot!  So basically, with Besh's recipe, there was a lot of frantic whisking and praying.  


That being said, the gumbo came out just fine.  Everything mixed together and the flavors were right.  


And honestly, I'm really looking forward to a bowl of that gumbo for lunch.  Warm weather be damned!