German Chocolate Cake
1 pkg. Bakers German sweet chocolate
1 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks, unbeaten
2-1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1/2 tsp. salt
4 egg whites (stiffly beaten)
Melt chocolate in 1/2 cup boiling water. Cool. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and chocolate. Mix until blended. Sift flour with soda and salt. Alternately add sifted dry ingredients and buttermilk to chocolate mixture, beating after each addition until batter is smooth. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites, pour batter into three 8 or 9 inch layer pans, lined on bottom with paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Cool for frosting.
Related Recipe: Coconut-Pecan Frosting
For Hawai'i folks, I think the frosting on this cake will recall good memories, even if my execution is pretty wonky! In Hawai'i, this is called chantilly frosting, though outside of the state, chantilly refers to more of whipped cream frosting. For me, this frosting found a permanent place in my heart as the topping of a supermarket single-layer german chocolate cake sold frozen in an aluminum pan. I think the brand was “Sensational” and it had a red and gold package? This frozen cake was a special occasion cake in our house! For the lucky folks who had access to Liliha Bakery, chantilly frosting is the deliciousness that tops its famous Coco Puffs and Chantilly Cake.
Hawai'i’s chantilly frosting is basically german chocolate cake frosting, but without the coconut and nuts mixed in. Here are recipes for the cake and frosting. My frosting was a bit too runny even after refrigerating it, but I think it’s because I used powdered milk to make my evaporated milk instead of using the canned version. Still, delicious and it took me right back to my parents’ living room—my extended family circled around our coffee table, coffee gurgling in my mom’s Corningware Blue Cornflower percolator, and a few precious frozen chantilly cakes thawing out on the counter.
