German Chocolate Cake

We celebrated my father in-law's 70th birthday at our house tonight. No birthday is complete without a birthday cake, so I happily made one. :) I recently got a new cookbook, Cooking with Coconut Flour which has a gluten free, dairy free german chocolate cake recipe in it. That recipe was what convinced me that I had to have this cookbook. I have been looking for a good gf german chocolate cake for a while, and this is it. This cake is awesome. Everything a german chocolate cake should be. The cake texture was perfect. Nice and moist, not the slightest bit crumbly. There were people at the party that do not eat gluten free, and they were raving about the cake. That's the best compliment ever when baking gluten free!!

I frosted the cake a little too soon, so a lot of the frosting started falling off. It still tasted good. :)

German Chocolate Cake
(Makes a double layer cake)

2/3 cup butter or Earth Balance Soy free buttery spread
1 cup cocoa powder
8 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 whole eggs
8 egg yolks
1 cup coconut milk
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sifted coconut flour

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and mix well. Remove from heat and let it cool. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, combine 2 whole eggs, egg yolks, coconut milk, sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir in cocoa mixture. Add coconut flour and whisk in until there are no lumps. Fold egg whites into batter. Pour batter equally into 2 greased round 9 inch cake pans. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into cake. Let cool. Fill layers and cover top and sides of cake with Coconut-Pecan Frosting.

Coconut-Pecan Frosting

1 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter or Earth Balance soy free buttery spread
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix coconut milk, cornstarch, sugar, egg yolks and butter in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla, flaked coconut and pecans. Let cool before frosting cake. (I doubled the frosting recipe)

Go ahead, take a bite. You know you want to. :)