German Chocolate Cake
This must be the best cake in the world. It is a chocolate coffee cake frosted with a pecan-coconut frosting. It is incredibly moist and has cocoa, coffee, coconuts and pecans. What more could you ask for? It looks quite bare and innocent, but it has a tonne of flavours. This is a recipe by Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito which I use a lot.
INGREDIENTS:
For Cake:
(1) 1 Cup Coffee
(2) 4 Ounces Semi Sweet Chocolate (115 Grams)
(3) 270 Grams Cake Flour (2-1/4 Cups)
(4) 3/4 Cup Cocoa Powder (70 Grams)
(5) 1-1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
(6) 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
(7) 3/4 Teaspoon Salt
(8) 450 Grams Granulated White Sugar (2-1/4 Cups)
(9) 280 Grams Unsalted Butter (1-1/4 Cups)
(10) 5 Large Eggs
(11) 1-1/2 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
(12) 1 Cup Buttermilk
For Coconut-Pecan Frosting:
A recipe for this can be found here.
NOTE:
(1) This is a large cake with 3 towering layers. It thus calls for 3 cake pans. I have made this recipe with only 2 pans before, but I had to use larger pans.
(2) This recipe also calls for buttermilk. If you do not have access to any, place a Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice in a cup and top it up with milk. Allow this to sit for 10 minutes and you would have sour milk which is a good substitute for buttermilk.
PROCEDURE:
For Cake:
(1) Make coffee and allow to cool
(2) Melt chocolate over double boiler and allow to cool a bit. You can also do this with a microwave oven, but be careful not to burn chocolate.
(3) In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
(4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
(5) Grease three 9 or 8 inch cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper.
(6) In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until soft, about one minute.
(7) With mixer running on medium speed, add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
(8) Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl at intervals to ensure that the batter is not sticking to the bowl.
(9) Add the vanilla extract and the melted chocolate to the batter and beat until incorporated.
(10) Finally add flour mixture, coffee and buttermilk in 5 additions (flour, coffee, flour, buttermilk, flour) and beat just until incorporated. Finish mixing with rubber spatula.
(11) Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If baking in only two pans, you would need to bake longer.
(12) Allow cakes to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pans. Cakes should be completely cold before frosting.
For Coconut-Pecan Frosting
Make frosting as directed here. Allow frosting to cool before applying on cake. Leave a few pecan halves to top cake after frosting.
Assemble Cake
Place a cake layer on serving dish or cake board and apply a third of the frosting on that layer. Repeat this step for the other 2 layers. Decorate top of cake with pecan halves.
Leftover cake can be stored at room temperature for a couple of days. It can last a week in the fridge.
Terry Adido is passionate about showing people how easy it is to recreate restaurant quality meals in the comfort of their kitchens. With a style of cooking he refers to as Afro-European Fusion, his meals are influenced greatly by French and Italian Cuisine with a West African twist. If you love good food, you are in for the ride of your life.
Nice, will definitely try it soon. Tried the Walnut coffee cake and the lemon poppy seed loaf but left out the poppy seeds cus I couldn’t get them Where I stay. God bless you.
Thanks. The lemon poppy seed loaf is great without the poppy seeds too. Just call it a lemon loaf
Nice one,boss wen will u finish dis coffee or tea dat u ar sipping in dis pix,I fear u oo,ur cheeks self don dey robust o.#tongueout#
That coffee never finishes. lol
hi, thanks for sharing. Mi nd sis made this cake last month and it was wow!! tasted great. though I noticed that u didn’t include when to add d coffee, but we add it with d buttermilk. I.e flour, butter/coffee, flour etc. thanks once again. looking forward to more amazing recipe.
Thanks for pointing that out. You are right. I will correct that error.
this is an amazing recipe.now my favorite cake.simple recipe used the coffee to melt my chocolate so i didnt have to put it over steaming water.everything perfect.thanks
I’m glad you loved it.
Thanks Terry for this amazing recipe. Looking forward to trying it. I have a few questions:
1) can i bake this in one large pan( e.g a 12″ round pan then torte and fill?
2) can i use the frosting for filling and for frosting the top while i cover the sides with buttercream?
3)can i use the cake recipe for the shirt cake i saw on the website?
thanks in anticipation of your response
Hi. (1) Yes. All the batter might end up in a single pan. Will however be somewhat tricky to handle as this cake is very soft. (2) Yes. (3) Yes.
This chocolate cake is very much different from what I make and I’m gamed to giving it a try but pls terry,help me get some clarity. Recipe calls for a cup of coffee,what’s the quantity of coffee(in tbsp or tsp)I’ll need to make a cup of its drink? When u say a cup do u mean the measuring cup? Thank you.
Depends on how intense you want the coffee flavour. I generally use about a tablespoon. Anywhere you see cup or spoon in my recipe, it refers to standard measuring cup or spoon.
Sweet. Can’t wait for “NEW RECIPES”.
Thanks Mimi
Thanks terry for another chocolate cake recipes, but please can cocoa powder be substitute for chocolate
Hi Grace. Not in this recipe. You can however use any other chocolate cake recipe of your choice and frost with the pecan coconut frosting.
Thank for always keeping us posted. I will try this with my sis. You can be my mentor sir. Keep the good work going.
Thanks Ola. I hope you both love it when you do try it. Kind regards.
Terry ure doing a great job here, thank u. I Tried this recipe and it taste so well, but it was too fluffy and was tearing off. Is there something I can do to make it hold
Thanks Dolapo. Yes it is a very soft and moist sponge. Keeping it in the fridge for a while before filling and frosting will make the sponge easier to work with.
Hi ! I’m so glad I found you. I’ve never made gcc. I’m concerned that it I’ll make the cake dense, you think? Can I substitute the butter for oil? Say one cup?? Will appreciate your response.
Hi. Technically, yes you can. However, this cake is very very soft. I am afraid using oil in place of butter would make it too soft to handle.
This is d first time i Will make GCC and it came out so good. Everyone that tasted it love it. Thank u.
Awesome! It remains one of my favorite cakes.
Great recipe. For me, the taste just kept getting irresistible as the days went by. Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome. It is my favorite.
Hello,I dunno how I got here from searching for “how best to give cakes a longer shelf life without preservatives”,but I must say I’m seriously impressed. I’m so soaked into baking that a great percentage of ppl I follow on Instagram are affiliated with baking. Also just realised that I follow u. This recipie I’m definitely going to try, but I hv a few questions.
1) can any random bar chocolate fit this recipie? I’m thinking that the kind of chocolate used is the kind suitable for making garnach which is quite difficult to find in Nigeria (at least, to the best of my knowledge)
I know quality could affect taste.
2) is it mandatory that cake/pastry flour be used, as all I find is all purpose flour
3) u said it could last one week in the fridge. Nothing more? Cuz I’m making it for a friend, nd I’m not sure it will be consumed within a week.
4)I’m guessing the cake tastes great on its own without the frosting as its not for a party or gathering.
I really hope to get some help, tnku.
Hi. Glad to have you here.
(1) Yes a bar chocolate cane be used. But like you said, the quality of chocolate will affect the taste, look and feel of the cake.
(2) You can use APF. The cake just wont be as fluffy. You can make your own CF. Tutorial here.
(3) After a week, any cake will begin to depreciate. While it might last longer, I doubt it would still taste as good.
(4) The frosting is what makes this cake GCC. So if you are not gonna make the frosting, you might as well just make a regular chocolate cake. Recipe here.
Yum, yum, yum!!! This looks so great, Terry. I can’t wait to give it a try. Please can this Cake be aged? (Yes, I know that it’s not a fruitcake). Thank you for this wonderful recipe Terry. May God bless and enlarge your coast, amen.
Hi. No.
This is thw best chocolate cake recipe i have yet used and i can say its for keeps,the texture of the batter is so creamy and chocolatey ,and the cake was so moist and fluffy,my client ordered for a plain one and started chowing when she came to pick ut up.thanjs for sharing Terry
Yes it is a great recipe. You are welcome Juliet.