Episode 48
German Chocolate Cake
May 1, 2011
German Chocolate Cake
If you’ve read my pages on plated desserts then you know how important it can be for a dessert to have a variety of textures. When a dish has different layers of textures (as well as flavors and temperatures) it helps reawaken the mouth. Consider being in a bakery for a long time – the smells of fresh baked bread become less and less noticeable because your noise adjusts to the smell. The same concept happens in the mouth. After being exposed to the same textures, temperature, and flavor your mouth gets adjusted to it and the meal feels like it becomes more and more bland. With many cakes you have to add something crunchy like a cookie to help provide balance but not with a German chocolate cake! The silky smooth velvety icing is perfectly offset by the crunchy German chocolate cake filling – which is sure to please bite after bite.
This cake is actual a very standard cake – devil’s food chocolate cake and chocolate swiss buttercream – the only difference is that we’re adding a German chocolate cake filling! It’s amazing how easy it is to turn a simple cake into a cake with a name isn’t it?
Now this episode may seem a little awkward because I’m wearing my older chef coat, using my old mixer, and mention that I haven’t made Swiss buttercream in a while – which is weird because I just made it a few episodes ago with the 3D cake. Well that’s only because after I finished the 3D cake I was so excited to share it with you I couldn’t wait to upload it! I actually film as many episodes as I can at a time so that way if for some reason I can’t film an episode one weekend at least I can still release one.
What’s also awkward is that I forgot how to make the devil’s food chocolate cake! I started to use the technique that is used to make the vanilla chiffon genoise cake – but as you can see it still worked in the end. That just goes to show you that even though baking may appear difficult there are many ways to achieve a similar result.
Side view of the German Chocolate Cake
My favorite part about this episode was the incredibly amazing Swiss buttercream I made. It was one of the smoothest richest icings I’ve made in a while and the cocoa powder that Sallee at Fran’s Cake and Candy gave me just made it that much better. This cocoa powder, Bensdorp, is simply amazing. The flavor was addictive and the velvety texture it imparted was nothing short of divine. Whatever cocoa powder you decide to use, remember to sift it before adding it to your icing. This helps break up any clumps so it blends into the icing better. Also remember to add about 2 tbsps at a time to help control the flavor. You can always add more cocoa powder, but you can never take it away. Remember that rule, it is probably one of the top rules to remember it pastry and it applies to everything not just cocoa powder.
Anyway, here is the recipe for the German Chocolate Cake which includes the Devil’s Food Chocolate Cake, the Swiss Buttercream, and the German Chocolate Cake Filling. You can download each recipe individually by clicking on the name of the recipe you want. Enjoy the video below!
Hi,
I am very impressed with all your recipes and the way u explain things. thanks a lot for your detailed videos. I prepared vanilla swiss buttercream using your chocolate swiss buttercream recipe. It was really good and when i kept the cake in the refrigerator the buttercream became hard. When i take it out, it takes so much of time to become soft again. Does this happen normally or some problem with the way i prepared it? Is there a way to fix it?
@Rohidh – This is totally normal. Remember that all buttercream really is is sweet butter. So however butter acts a temperature is how your buttercream will act. So in the fridge it will get hard and at room temperature it will eventually get soft. The warmer your room temperature the faster it will soften. If you are warming up a solid cake at room temperature it’s going to take some time, especially for the core of the cake, because it’s basically like a solid brick. The icing acts as an insulator keeping moisture and temperature from escaping. Most bakeshops advise keeping refrigerated cakes out for at least an hour before serving but it can take longer. To speed the process up you could preslice the cake and warm each individual slice up to room temperature. This would only take about 15-30 minutes depending on your room temperature.
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