German Chocolate Cake

Happy Fathers Day! This is my dad's favorite cake, so I went all out and made a 3 layered German Chocolate Cake. It was intense, but SOOO worth it!!! I don't think I'm ever going to eat the frosting out of the can again! You should definitely try this!

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup butter, softened
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

Pour chocolate chips in a bowl and pour 1/2 cup of boiling water over top and let sit 3 minutes. Stir to dissolve. Let this cool slightly. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix 1 cup of butter with 2 cups of sugar until light and fluffy - usually about 2-3 minutes on medium speed, scraping sides so it all gets incorporated.

Slowly add in your egg yolks one at a time while beating the mixture. Once there are no more streaks, or spots of yellow remain they have been mixed in well enough. Scrape the sides of the bowl.

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

It is important to sift the flour in order to remove all the lumps. I usually do this by putting all of the dry ingredients into one large bowl and run a wire whisk through it quite a few times so that everything is incorporated. This is the time when you add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the flour.

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.

Take your four egg whites and beat them at a very 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. 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.

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

Pour cake batter into 3 prepared 8 inch round pans. You can either butter and flour them, or cut wax paper to fit inside of the bottom of the pans. This cake is VERY soft and fluffy so to be safe, you might want to put the wax paper in.

Bake for 30 minutes until the centers don't jiggle and a toothpick comes out clean. Let sit for 10 minutes and then remove from pans by loosening the sides with a knife and flipping over. Let cool on a cooling rack until COMPLETELY cool.

Frost with Coconut Pecan Frosting:

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

3 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/3 cups Sweetened Coconut Flakes

1 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Stir together sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks and butter in medium saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and bubbly - about 10-12 minutes. In the meantime, in a skillet, toast pecans on medium heat for about 5 or more minutes...until you can smell the aroma of toasting nuts. Remove everything from heat; stir in vanilla, coconut and pecans. Cool to room temperature. Makes about 2-2/3 cups of frosting.

*I had to double this recipe for the 3 layered cake. SOOO GOOOD!!!

**To make cake flour, add 2 T cornstarch to a 1 cup measuring cup the add enough flour to fill the 1 cup. That equals one cup of cake flour. To make 1/2 cup, add 1 T cornstarch and fill with enough flour to fill the 1/2 cup measuring cup.

*Cake recipe adapted from myhomecooking.net

*Frosting recipe from Sadies Kitchen