LAURA LEE ALICE
COOKS
®
Why I like this recipe . . .
• It's tried and true. I have made this traditional recipe dozens of times.
• The pecan and coconut frosting is good on a carrot cake too!
• Simple ingredients that you may already have in your pantry.
• The recipe also makes a 9 x 13 cake or 24 cupcakes. The latter is great to use on a buffet.
• Since it contains 1 cup of butter and 4 eggs, you know it's going to be a moist chocolate cake..
• It has the perfect amount of chocolate to satisfy that craving.
Ingredients
• 4 oz sweet baking chocolate
• ½ cup boiling water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
• 4 eggs separated, room temperature
• 1 tsp of a good vanilla
• 2¼ cups flour, sifted 3 times
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
1. Put the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl, pour in boiling water and stir until melted; let cool.
2. In a medium bowl, using a whisk attachment, beat the sugar and butter until fluffy; add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Slowly beat in the chocolate mixture and vanilla.
4. On low speed, add the dry ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk until batter is smooth but not overbeaten.
5. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold into the cake batter.
6. Pour into 3 prepared pans. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until cake tests done. Cool in pans for 5-10 minutes; place on racks to finish cooling. Wrap layers if not using right away.
Pecan and Coconut Frosting
Ingredients
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 3 egg yolks
• ½ cup butter
• 1½ tsp vanilla
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1¼ cups coconut (shreds or flakes)
Instructions
1. In a medium saucepan, combine the first 5 ingredients. Cook over medium heat, while constantly stirring, for 10 to 12 minutes until thickened.
2. Remove from heat until thick enough to spread; stir in the pecans and coconut. Frost only the tops of the cake layers.
Our German chocolate cake is all about rich, moist layers of chocolate cake topped off with an awesome coconut and pecan frosting. Each bite is a tasty mix of nutty sweetness from the pecans and the creamy goodness of coconut.
Recipes are like stories; they can change from person to person. Everyone has their idea of how a recipe should be, even
though it may have changed from the original. We will never know the true author of the original recipe, regardless of
what some may say. That's why I go back and look through the oldest cookbooks that I can find. Sometimes it's not the
recipe in the books that I find, but the tiny pieces of handwritten recipes and newspaper articles that are stuck within
the pages. That's where the real story is, finding those simple Southern recipes. -Mac