🍰 Family German Chocolate Cake
A rich, layered chocolate cake filled and topped with that classic coconut-pecan frosting — sweet, nutty, and nostalgic.
🎂 Chocolate Cake Layers
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup hot coffee (enhances chocolate flavor)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour three 8-inch pans.
- Mix dry ingredients.
- Add eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
- Stir in hot coffee (batter will be thin).
- Bake 25–30 minutes. Cool completely.
🥥 Coconut-Pecan Frosting (The Star!)
Ingredients
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- ½ cup butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1½ cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- In a saucepan, combine milk, sugar, yolks, and butter.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick (about 10–12 minutes).
- Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla, coconut, and pecans.
- Cool until spreadable.
🧁 Assemble
- Spread frosting between each cake layer.
- Frost the top (traditionally, the sides are left bare — but you can frost them if you prefer).
- Let set before slicing.
💡 Did You Know?
Despite the name, German chocolate cake isn’t from Germany.
It’s named after Samuel German, who developed a type of baking chocolate for Baker’s Chocolate in 1852. The cake became popular in the U.S. in the 1950s.
If you’d like, I can:
- Make it extra moist bakery-style
- Give you Grandma-style old-fashioned measurements
- Convert it to cupcakes
- Or turn it into a smaller family-size version ❤️
