Update: This has become one of my most Googled recipes, so I updated the post with a couple of mouth-watering pictures that do the cake justice. This is a simple, easy-to-make cake with spectacular results.
I asked my mother-in-law what kind of cake she would like me to bake her for her birthday. I wasn’t surprised by her answer. Of course, she wanted a German Chocolate Cake. It is the same cake my husband always wants for his birthday. The cake he grew up eating on special occasions. My mother-in-law gave me her recipe for Coconut-Almond Frosting for German Chocolate Cake when we were first married, and I’ve been making it ever since.
I’m not a huge fan of boxed cake mixes, I think they are too dry unless you doctor them up. But in Anne Byrn’s Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor, she has a recipe for German Chocolate Cake from a mix that is moist and delicious. When combined with the coconut-almond frosting it is almost irresistible. In fact, by the time I remembered I needed a picture so I could post this family favorite recipe on my blog, all that was left was this sad little corner piece. I’ll have to make it again soon and take an Oh Wow picture.
I am submitting this recipe to Shelby of The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honey Bunch for the June Family Recipes Event.
Ingredients
- 1 package German chocolate cake mix
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 (7 oz. package) sweetened flaked coconut
- 1 cup sliced almonds
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350º. Mix the cake mix, buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl on low speed for one minute until combined. Beat at medium speed for two minutes more. Pour into greased and floured 13 x 9 baking dish. Bake 38 – 42 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
- Can also be baked in two 9 inch round pans for 30 - 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and remove from pans. I like to line my round cake pans with parchment paper before adding batter for easy removal from the pan
- Combined butter, sugar, evaporated milk and eggs* in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 12 minutes or until thickened. Add vanilla, coconut and almonds. Cool to room temperature before frosting cake.
- *You can also warm up the butter, sugar and evaporated milk and temper the eggs before adding them to the saucepan.
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
Barbara, This is my Husbands Favorite Cake. I am going to make it for his birthday tonight. Im super excited to try this recipe. Thanks so much for the time saving and fairly easy to follow recipe. This is exactly what I was looking for as a working mother. =) Have a great day!
Thanks Ashley. I hope he loves the cake. Happy Birthday!
I too am making it for a birthday. My husband loves chocolate and I wanted a quicker, easier version of my mother’s old German Chocolate Cake. This was recommended to me. It smells great, I am sure he will love it when we cut into it tonight!
HI Barbara! I made the frosting from your recipe here and it was great! I posted a blog about it on my site and wanted to make sure that was okay with you. Thanks for the recipe!
http://whatsthesmatter.blogspot.com/2012/01/german-chocolate-cupcakes-and-coconut.html
Do you think I should double the icing recipe if I am trying to do the double layer with icing in the middle?
Unless you want to frost the sides of the cake as well, you won’t need to do a double batch of icing for the middle layer. It makes enough frosting to frost a 9 x 13 pan or the top and middle of the layer cake as shown. Thanks for the great question!
I made this for Valentines day and it’s absolutely delicious! Next time I will cook it in 2 rounds pans so I can put a layer of the frosting in the middle too!
Thanks Sarah! So glad you loved it as much as we do.
This is a great recipe. I had never tried doctoring the German Chocolate cake mix before but this is a huge improvement. If you have only tried store bought frosting, you’re missing out! This is easy and delicious and a hit!
You’re so right, homemade frosting is so much easier than store bought, and not really much work. Thanks for taking the time to let me know how much you enjoyed this cake!
I was just wondering have you ever tried making this cake with pecans or do the almonds just make it so much better??
Hi Lisa – traditionally German Chocolate Frosting has pecans and I did substitute the almonds for pecans once and thought it was great, but my hubs liked the almonds better.
So I’m making the frosting and I’m having issues with the eggs, the whites are cooking up and making chunks in the frosting? Did you ever have this issue?
I have had that happen to me occasionally if I heat up the eggs to quickly. That’s why I noted that you could temper the eggs in the recipe. Fortunately, once you add the coconut you don’t really notice the bits of cooked egg white.
my husband absolutely loves this german chocolate cake. i made it today for our anniversary and he pretty much licked the plate clean. thank you for this simple delicios recipe.
Hi Amanda! So glad your husband loved the cake as much as we do. Thanks for taking the time to let me know you made it!
My husband absolutely loves German Chocolate cake and requests it every year for his birthday. With two kids, and both of us working, it was always easier to just buy a box cake and pre-made frosting. One year I got the wrong frosting (hey, it had coconut in it…that counts, right? Wrong) and he noticed right away. He did so much for my birthday a few weeks ago that this year, for his birthday in a few days (!), I’m going to show him how great he is by trying this recipe. I’m very excited to see his expression and thank YOU for the recipe that sounds 100% homemade, but still has a few shortcuts.
Hi Christine. I’m sure he’ll be over the moon for this cake. Have fun!
Barbara,
I made this cake today and my husband LOVED it! I’m sure this will be a yearly birthday request. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Christine
Great – Thanks Christine!
Would it be possible to just leave out the nuts? Would i need to double the coconut? Also, we only have the general dried coconut here, not the beautiful shredded kind, would this work?
Hi Naomi – yes you can leave out the nuts. Sometimes if I have people over who don’t like nuts, I’ll bake a sheet cake and frost one half with just the coconut added and then add nuts and frost the other half. I don’t add extra coconut when I do that way.
I haven’t tried it with dried coconut, but it should work well. Perhaps it would absorb more of the liquid, so just add the coconut a little at a time until you have a spreadable consistency.
Good luck! I’d love to hear how it goes. Thanks!
Hello, I have two questions if you could please help me.
First in the frosting I notice it calls for vanilla is that vanilla extract as well orrrr what exactly does you mean by “vanilla” (:
&& second I notice on the top two pictures there is chocolate drizzled on the cake, what kind of chocolate would that be?
If you can help me ASAP I greatly appreciate it thank you.
Alrighty thank you so much Barbara!
I’ll be making the cake for my boyfriend for his birthday tomorrow, I’m sure he’ll love it again thank you so much for your fast reply and this recipe! ((:
It is vanilla extract. I just melted some chocolate chips, put it in a Ziploc storage bag, snipped the corner and drizzled a bit on top. Enjoy!
Wish him Happy Birthday!
I was looking for an alternative to the butter rich from scratch recipe, and this looks like a great option. Thanks so much.
Thanks Julie – hope you enjoy it!
I don’t know if anyone else has asked this, but I’ve noticed the cake mixes are getting smaller. Do you know how many ounces the box of mix you used had? If not, the brand you used?
I used a Betty Crocker mix before they reduced the size – 18.25 oz. I don’t really understand why they would change the size of the mix. I know most people would rather pay a little more and keep the same size.
The new mixes call for 1/4 less water, so I’m assuming you could reduce the buttermilk by 1/4 cup and use the new small mixes.
Great question. Thanks!
Thanks so much for your answer. After I wrote my question, I tried it with an organic cake mix. The texture was very unpleasant, sort of grainy, but I could tell that the buttermilk was an improvement in flavor. After sharing a piece and talking to my friend who is big into organic, she confirmed that the texture issue was due to the mix…..I will try it again without trying to be healthier. (laughing.) Thanks so much for your help and the recipe! You’re a sweetie.
Hi Barbara, me again. I found a box of Duncan Hines Swiss Chocolate Cake mix today that’s 18.25 oz. I made your recipe again and I’m eating it right now (eat a little, type and chew). It’s still very warm and I’m having it with whipped cream. So good!
For the frosting I used a coconut pecan broiler frosting recipe. It’s the lazy- cheaty method of giving it the traditional frosting flavors. I almost used your idea of almonds, and I want to try that the next time.
Anyway, I am keeping your recipe and I want to thank you once again.
Warm cake with whipped cream sounds like a perfect way to eat the cake. I’ve heard about subbing prune baby food. Good to know it works in this recipe. Thanks for the update.
Thanks for replying to my update. (smile.)
One of thing….I meant to tell you I substituted about 2 Tablespoons of the oil with prune baby food. It something that works really well with chocolate cake recipes. Sort of the same idea as using applesauce and no one knows it’s in there.
I am trying this recipe for my daughter’s birthday today. I am not much of a baker and her friend was going to make the cake, but is now sick. I just put the cake in the oven and then read the comments. I hope my cake turns out okay with the smaller size cake mix. Why would they change up something like that with all the recipes in the world using their original size. Oh well. Wish me luck. Was glad to see someone asked about the chocolate drizzled on top, I will do that as well. Also, I went to 2 different stores and could not find a German Chocolate cake mix so am using a Milk Chocolate…LOL I’ll let you know how it turned out.
Good luck Debbie! I’m sure it will be great.
I’m going to try to make this cake on Saturday for my boyfriend’s birthday. His favorite is German Chocolate, and Ive never made one before. I didnt just wanna do a box cake mix with the store bought icing, I think its terrible. Your recipe looks amazing, and so simple! I’ve never heard of switching the water with buttermilk, does it make it more moist? Anyway, I’m so glad I found this. Thanks so much!
Oh and one last thing… How do you temper an egg? I clicked on the link in the recipe, but it didnt make much sense to me.. Thanks again
Hi Elizabeth – you boyfriend is going to love this cake and you for making it for him. Yes the buttermilk adds a little extra moisture but it also gives it more of a from scratch taste.
You temper eggs by beating them in a bowl, then very slowing beating in a little bit of the hot mixture (in this case, heat the butter, sugar and evaporated milk without the eggs). Once the eggs are warmed up you can add them to the hot mixture and the eggs won’t cook before they have a chance to incorporate into the mixture.
If you are very vigilante about stirring the frosting constantly while it’s heating and have a great pan, you don’t need to temper the eggs, but otherwise it’s best to temper the eggs.
Hope that helps – good luck!
I just wanted to let you know the cake and the frosting was a success!! Ill never make it any other way, and ill be making next month for my dad’s birthday! Oh and I had someone help me with the tempering, and it was so easy. Thanks so much Barbara
I’m so glad! You’re right. Tempering is easy, probably harder to explain than to do. Thanks for the update!
omg it looks and taste great, just made it tonight for hubbys birthday… he’s not home yet so it will be a surprise but i’m finding it hard to stop thinking about nibbling it on the bottom corner where he wont see..lol
tanks for the recipe:)
lol had to write back, we cut the cake and though i knew it was delicious from tasting before assembly now its my hubbys and my sons fav. too!!
and my hubby cant believe i made this myself…its far from the regular box cake w frosting i usually make
Thanks for the update! So glad everyone loved the cake. Your comments brightened my night.
Barbara,
I am planning on making this cake for a grooms cake, 12 inch round. How long would you cook it for? Should I use just one recipe for each cake or maybe 11/2 recipes for each cake? Do you know how much batter it makes? Thanks for any help.
Laura
Hi Laura – great idea for a grooms cake. I’ve never baked a 12 inch cake, but Wilton has a great guide http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm for 2 inch deep cake pans or http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-party-cake-3-inch-pans.cfm for three inch deep cake pans.
Note: For Pans 10 inches and larger, use a heating core when baking. http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Decorative-Preferred-Heating-Bakeware/dp/B0000VM82M. I’ve also heard you can also use a flower nail http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Flower-Nail-Decorating-Tool/dp/B0000CFMUE/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1360590485&sr=1-1&keywords=Wilton+flower+nail. I don’t have any experience using either, but you need it to help cook the cake from the inside out.
I’d love to see a picture of it.
Hi Barbara, I too am wanting to make an easy German Chocolate Cake for my husbands birthday! Did not realize how many men love German Chocolate Cake! LOL!!! When I read your recipe I was so excited it was so easy, but was totally thrown off when I read to put it in a 9×13 cake pan after looking at the picture you have posted of a double layer round cake…..I want to bake it in round cake pans….do I need to bake it longer or anything? I think your picture should match the cake pan you suggest baking it in. Just a thought, I am going to the store to get the ingrediants to make this cake and frosting. My husbands birthday is tomorrow. I might add…today is May 2nd and we have snow!!! Unbelivable!!! Have never seen snow in May…April? yes, but really, not May!!! Just a thought!…..since we can’t do our outdoor barbeque tomorrow evening!!! LOL!!!
Correction to my last post:
oh one other question, have you ever put almonds and pecans on together? My husban loves both, so in question as to which to put on…or what it would taste like with both. Comment please, thanks!
Sorry Barbara, I should have went back up to the top of my computer screen and looked at the recipe again! I guess I missed it where you wrote in italics that you can put it in two round cake pans!!! Should have read more closely….sure better do that in following the recipe!!! Anyway, I did share with you other amuzing things in that post! Thanks again, and will let you know how all turns out….the cake and the birthday!
Happy Birthday to your husband. I hope it’s a wonderful day and that he enjoys his cake. Yes, I think you could combine and use both nuts if you wanted. I think the different textures and flavors would compliment each other.