German Chocolate Cake

My husband is the pickiest eater I know. He doesn't like anything besides the basic steak and potato dinner, cheeseburgers, or spaghetti. On a very rare occasion he will actually try something new, and 9 times out of 10, he will enjoy it......but still, he does NOT like to try new things.

He also has a sweet tooth smaller than an ant. How can he deny all of my scrumptious baking??? I have no idea, since I have the biggest sweet tooth EVER, but the things I bake just don't appeal to him. There are a few things he likes....crumb donuts, banana cream pie, bear claws, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and German chocolate cake. (He did actually enjoy my dad's birthday cake and told me I should make that again for Thanksgiving......too bad that isn't going to happen). Davey always gets so sad when I bake something that he won't eat. This isn't my fault that he won't try anything new, and I don't want to bake the same stuff over and over and over again. I LOVE to try new things!

This weekend, though, was different! After helping me with my stand mixer, I figured he deserved to have something special made for him. I chose to bake him a German chocolate cake. I usually use a boxed mix, but wanted to actually make one from scratch this time. I went out into Googleland and found myself a German chocolate cake recipe that I had all the ingredients to (since I had just gotten home from the grocery store and didn't want to go back.....). I don't eat too much German chocolate cake (I like it, but don't find it worthy of all the calories.....I would rather have something much tastier like these or even a couple of these....OR a huge slice of this!!! Yes, those are much more worthy of major calorie consumption.....and all the hours of running I would need to do to burn them off!) so I set off to make the hubs his own personal cake. Thankfully I had just bought a 6" cake pan! :)


German Chocolate Cake
(as adapted from David Lebovitz)

*Makes a large cake. I halved the recipe to make a small cake


INGREDIENTS:

2 oz semi-sweet chocolate (I used chocolate chips)
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
6 TBSP water
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter; softened
1 1/4 cup + 1/4 cup sugar (keep both amounts separate)
4 large eggs; separated
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk; at room temperature (I used the powdered buttermilk)
1 tsp vanilla extract


DIRECTIONS:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Grease whatever cake pan you are using
-Melt both chocolates together with the 6 TBSP water

-Stir until smooth and then allow to come to room temperature

-In a large bowl, beat together the butter and 1 1/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy

Some light and fluffy yumminess right there! <3

-Beat in melted chocolate

-Then beat in the egg yolks, one at a time

I was shocked to see how much lighter the batter became after the yolks were added! You can see the difference in the bowl!!!

-Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

I sifted in my powdered buttermilk at the point as well

-Mix in half of the dry ingredients into the batter mixture

That should be exactly half, right....??? ;)

-Mix in buttermilk (this is where I added the water since I used powdered buttermilk) and the vanilla extract

-Mix in the rest of the dry ingredients

-In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft, droopy peaks

Ok, so confession....I beat the egg whites.....I beat them reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaalllllly well......but never did I see any soft droopy peaks. What are soft droopy peaks? Isn't that some sort of oxymoron? Droopy peak? Hmmmmm..........

NEXT.....

-Beat in the 1/4 cup sugar until stiff

(I, uh, thought we were making a cake here.....beatings and stiffness........yeah, ok)

-Fold in about 1/3 of the egg whites to lighten the batter

That does NOT look like egg whites to me........

-Fold in remaining egg whites until there is no trace of egg whites visible

Nope, no egg whites here. Never seen 'em.....

-Pour batter into prepared cake pan 

Nevermind the sour cream container in the background.....

-Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean

*David Lebovitz gives recipes for a filling and frosting for this cake. I used a jarred frosting though.....I know, shame on me.......but I didn't feel like making the frosting. I had dinner on the stove as well (recipe to come soon) so a jarred frosting it was!

Davey enjoyed his cake very much!!! :D Seeing him smile while eating one of my baked goods makes my heart happy! I can now sleep well!!! Hahaha!

Oh and FYI: 2 days until Thanksgiving! Yay!!!! I just love Thanksgiving! I have a few things I am baking up for dinner/dessert (and of course will share them all with you). This will be my first Thanksgiving that I am contributing to the feeding and not just consuming the food!!! 

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday all of you! Enjoy this time with your family and friends and be thankful for all that you have!!!! <3 I am thankful for my readers and all the love you have shown me thus far!!!

<3 you all!

Amy