German Chocolate Cake isn’t really German. It gained fame in 1957 after being published as a reader recipe in a Dallas newspaper. In the ingredient list, the reader who submitted the recipe specified “German’s Sweet Chocolate” which was a sweet chocolate formulated by a man named Samuel German who worked for the Walter Baker Chocolate Company. So the cake is actually named for the brand of chocolate used to make it.
How German Chocolate Cake Became Famous
As Jean Anderson points out in The American Century Cookbook, German’s brand chocolate had been selling just fine for the past 105 years prior to the cake recipe, but when the cake recipe was printed in paper, there was a spike in German’s chocolate sales in Dallas. General Foods traced the sales to that reader recipe. They were so impressed that a district manager asked the food editor at the Dallas paper to send the recipe to other food editors around the country. When it started appearing in newspapers, editors began receiving letters from readers saying the cake recipe was similar to one their mother made or one they'd lost. So it existed before it was printed, just under a different name. Given its new popularity, General Foods refined the recipe, added Angel Flake Coconut, and re-named it German Sweet Chocolate Cake.
Lady Bird Johnson's Recipe
So that's the story of German Chocolate Cake. As someone who grew up in Texas, I can tell you it's a cake that appeared on my grandmother's table during almost every visit. You could find it at good bakeries, and someone would almost always bring German Chocolate Cake to a potluck There were different recipes, but most are just variations on the one that appeared in the Dallas paper. One that stands out and which I like is Lady Bird Johnson's recipe.
Lady Bird Johnson's German Chocolate Cake
½ cup water
4 oz. German Chocolate (Baker’s Brand), cut up
1 tablespoon natural cocoa powder (my addition)
2 ½ cups cake flour, sifted (10 oz)
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt -- if using salted butter or margarine, omit or reduce to pinch
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2 cups granulated sugar, use scant cups (385 grams)
4 egg yolks
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
4 large egg whites, stiffly beaten
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray three 9-inch round cake pans with flour-added cooking spray and then line with rounds of parchment. This is a tender cake. If you don’t line the pans, it may tear.
Bring water to a boil in a microwave-safe glass measuring cup or small saucepan. Add chocolate to water and stir until it melts. Stir in cocoa powder. Set aside to cool.
Sift together cake flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy; Beat in yolks, vanilla and melted chocolate mixture. When very well mixed, by hand or using lowest speed of mixer, add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk; When flour is completely absorbed, fold in beaten egg whites.
Divide batter among the three pans and bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes or until they appear set and a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out with moist crumb.s. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then carefully flip from pans. Begin making icing. It’s good to start making the icing as soon as possible, as it needs time to chill.
Coconut Pecan Frosting
1 ½ sticks melted butter (6 oz)
12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
A pinch or two of salt
2 cups flaked sweetened coconut (1 bag of Angel flake)
1 ½ cups chopped pecans (toasted)
Whisk butter, evaporated milk, sugar and egg yolks together in a large saucepan. Turn heat to medium and cook mixture, whisking often, until it thickens. This should take about 10 minutes. When thickened and bubbly, remove from heat and pour into a large mixing bowl. It should look thick, but it will still be too runny to use as frosting at this point. Don’t worry, because it will thicken as it cools and will thicken even more as it chills.
Let it cool to room temperature, then stir in the vanilla, salt, pecans and coconut. If you plan on spreading only across the top of the cakes, you can ice the cake now. If you like glopping it onto the sides like I do, it’s best to chill the icing a little so it will adhere to the cake better.
Recipe
Lady Bird Johnson's German Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup water
- 4 oz. German Chocolate Baker’s Brand, cut up
- 1 tablespoon natural cocoa powder
- 2 ½ cups sifted cake flour (10 oz/280 grams)
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt -- if using salted butter or margarine omit or reduce to pinch
- 1 cup unsalted butter (230 grams)
- 2 cups granulated sugar minus 1 tablespoon
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1 ½ tsp. vanilla
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 4 large egg whites stiffly beaten
Frosting
- 1 ½ sticks melted butter
- 12 oz. can evaporated milk
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1 ½ tsp. vanilla
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups coconut 1 bag of Angel flake
- 1 ½ cups chopped pecans toasted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray three 9-inch round cake pans with flour-added cooking spray and then line with rounds of parchment. This is a tender cake. If you don’t line the pans, it may tear.
- Bring water to a boil in a microwave-safe glass measuring cup or small saucepan. Add chocolate to water and stir until it melts. Stir in cocoa powder. Set aside to cool.
- Sift together cake flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy; Beat in yolks, vanilla and melted chocolate mixture. When very well mixed, by hand or using lowest speed of mixer, add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk; When flour is completely absorbed, fold in beaten egg whites.
- Divide batter among the three pans and bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes or until they appear set and a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out with moist crumb.s. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then carefully flip from pans. Begin making icing. It’s good to start making the icing as soon as possible, as it needs time to chill.
- Whisk butter, evaporated milk, sugar and egg yolks together in a large saucepan. Turn heat to medium and cook mixture, whisking often, until it thickens. This should take about 10 minutes. When thickened and bubbly, remove from heat and pour into a large mixing bowl. It should look thick, but it will still be too runny to use as frosting at this point. Don’t worry, because it will thicken as it cools and will thicken even more as it chills.
- Let it cool to room temperature, then stir in the vanilla, salt, pecans and coconut. If you plan on spreading only across the top of the cakes, you can ice the cake now. If you like glopping it onto the sides like I do, it’s best to chill the icing a little so it will adhere to the cake better.
Katy says
Try Cook's Illustrated or Cook's Country. I don't like German Chocolate Cake but my mother made one of those and loved it.
Regarding sharing baked goods, I freeze and eat over time in addition to supplying: my doormen, my hairdresser, my internist (the nurses love it), my exercise teacher (she has 3 little kids and we have a regularly scheduled "treats" day), my husband's secretary, my kids'teachers (back when they were in school), friends and family.
We just boarded a cruise in Italy and I packed 2 lbs of See's in case the dessert on the ship is bad!
Joanna says
I hope someone asks me about German Chocolate Cake so I can explain this crazy story to them. I don't know who wouldn't be impressed by a person knowing all that stuff about cake!
About the cookies though, I usually freeze them and make them into ice cream sandwiches. You could also join a baking team that sends baked goods to Iraq or Afghanistan once a month. I am an Angel Baker, and the soldiers really appreciate the goodies! If you're interested, the website is http://www.soldiersangels.com
Anna says
Hi Heather,
Sorry I didn't answer. Someone else had asked the same question and I answered it, so I think maybe I thought it had been answered.
I should probably create a page saying what I do with the cookies.
First off, I scale a lot of recipes down and make half batches. Even so, I still have leftovers. I usually
1) Send cookies to my husband's office.
2) Divide them among various girl friends
3) Take them to the neighbors.
4) Eat them myself (freeze, eat over time)
Honestly, I would love to be able to give cookies to a food bank of non-profit, but I am under the impression that cookies made for non-profit organizations and such must be made in a licensed commercial kitchen. I bake out of my home kitchen.
If anyone has suggestions on ways to donate cookies, let me know. I would love to see them go to a childrens' organization, retirement community, police station, jail, hospital, church, school, anything. However, I need to find a place that doesn't have restrictions against home kitchens.
Until then, I just have to keep giving cookies away to friends.
heather says
that looks great! i'm a huge icing girl, so the more the better to me!
i asked this a few posts back, but i'm not sure if you saw it. how do you get through all your cookies? when i make a batch for my family it takes us a few days to work through them, and we'd never be able to finish off a daily-replenished supply. do you give lots of cookies away? freeze them? have an immense cookie stash? just curious!
HeartofGlass says
Wow, I've never seen a GCC frosted on the sides before, usually I've seen it only frosted in the middle and on top.
I knew it wasn't German, but I didn't know it was Texan at heart--shoulda guessed it had South(west) origins with the coconut and pecan icing!
Johanna says
Thank you for the story, that sure explains a lot 🙂
KAnn says
Very interesting story! German chocolate cake has always been such a favorite and I haven't made one for years...now I am looking at vegan baking so perhaps this will inspire me. Yours looks wonderful!
Katrina says
Thanks for all the interesting info about German Chocolate Cake. Who knew!
Wow, that's quite a cake! Good luck with the cutting. You're gutsy, I don't even attempt layer cakes. Maybe someday.
VeggieGirl says
I didn't know all that about German Chocolate Cake - interesting!! It looks fabulous, by the way :0)