German's Chocolate Cake

Most people call this "German Chocolate Cake", but I think the real name is "German's Chocolate Cake" after the name of the chocolate. The recipe is still printed on their boxes and I believe it shouldn't be tampered with. There is an amusing story behind this one. This cake was done for the same lady who ordered the Diva cake. We always have fun discussions. She bought everything to make one of these cakes for her huspand's birthday, but never got around to making it. Two months later, she asked me to make it for her, so I gladly said I would. In retrospect, I should have asked her to just give me the ingredients she bought and I'd use them to save her some money. I didn't think about it at the time. The ingredient list for this thing isn't cheap. If you've never made this cake, it is pretty labor intensive. Decorating it is a snap, but getting to that point takes quite a while.

I got the cake mixed and in the oven before starting on the icing. Since even the icing has to cool, I wanted to get a jump on it. If you use the icing when it is too warm, it will just fall off the cake. Also, if you put it on the cake when it is too warm, it'll do the same. Now, the recipe says to cook the icing mixture until it gets to a light brown color. That was the only part of the recipe that I hated. It also says it will take 10-12 minutes to get there. Maybe their light brown is a little different than mine. I've cooked caramel sauces before, so I knew the color I wanted to go for and it takes a bit longer than 12 minutes to get there. I got the color and texture I wanted, knowing that it would set up more as it cooled, and set it aside. After everything was cool I iced the cake. The classic way of icing one of these is to put the icing on top and between the layers only. You leave the sides open to the bare cake. That's pretty and all, but I think it is a really bad idea if you are not going to eat the cake immediately. Also, you would have to pile the icing on about an inch thick in the areas you do have it if you wanted to use it all. Since this one was going to sit overnight and maybe longer, I decided to cover the entire outside with the icing. It keeps the cake moist, where the classic method will tend to let the cake dry out. I iced it and covered it up for transport the next morning.

The feedback I received on this one was excellent. She said her family will not often finish the cakes she makes for them, but they all had a piece of mine and each asked for a piece in their lunches the next day. Krystal, who I've mentioned before and is crazy for cakes, got a piece and gave me her two cents as well. She was really pleased with the icing because it was so think and gooey. I guess that little extra time I spent cooking the icing paid off. My wife also told me she loved the icing since she continuously sampled it while I was decorating the cake. She knows that I often have leftover icing from many of my cakes and spent time looking around the next morning to see if I had kept any of the icing from this cake. Unfortunately for her, I used it all. Well, at least all of it that we didn't eat before I put it on the cake.