This Easy German Chocolate Cake Recipe is a simple, yummy, and easy-to-make cake—just FIVE ingredients—but the results are spectacular! It is among one of my favorite cake recipes, and it just might become yours, too!
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Update: This Easy German Chocolate Cake recipe has been a family favorite for a long time, so I’ve updated it with a video and new photos and am sharing it again for new readers who may have missed it the first time around or haven’t made it yet.
So confession time—I’m a little bit picky about my chocolate cake. I love a good chocolate cake, as you can see by looking at all the cake recipes I have! It’s gotten to the point where each of my kids has a different favorite chocolate cake—my daughter prefers an old Hershey’s Chocolate Cake recipe that’s a little milder, while the boys prefer a rich Old-Fashioned Dark Chocolate Cake that really features the dark cocoa flavor.
And then there’s my husband who is crazy about this German Chocolate Cake. He always wants this cake for his birthday and he wants it to taste just like Mom used to make. 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!
We’ve tried several German Chocolate Cake recipes over the years. By far, the best and easiest we’ve found is Anne Byrn’s Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor, which has a recipe for German Chocolate Cake from a mix that is moist and delicious, even though it starts from a box. When combined with my mother-in-law’s Coconut-Almond Frosting, it is irresistible!
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Minimal ingredients: This recipe only calls for 5 ingredients! You might already have a few of them in your pantry.
- Rich and decadent: This cake includes layers of moist chocolate cake topped with a gooey coconut-pecan frosting!
- Customizable: This recipe is easy to adapt with different nuts or chocolate types.
Recipe Ingredients
Cake:
- German chocolate cake mix
- Buttermilk
- Vegetable oil
- Large eggs
- Pure vanilla extract
Coconut-Almond Frosting
- Butter
- Sugar
- Evaporated milk
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Sweetened flaked coconut
- Sliced almonds
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How To Make German Chocolate Cake
Recipe FAQs
I know some people prefer pecans in their German Chocolate frosting, and you can substitute pecans for the almonds in this recipe. However, if you’ve never tried German Chocolate Cake with an almond frosting, I strongly encourage you to give it a try!
If you prefer, you can make the cake in 13 x 9 baking dish. Bake the cake 38–42 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
Add Chocolate drizzle on top! I just melt about ¼ cup of chocolate chips, put it in a Ziploc storage bag, snipped the corner, and drizzled a bit on top.
Expert Tips
- Baking layered cakes: If you’re making this cake for a special occasion, head on over to my Tips for Baking Layer Cakes post. It’s a handy guide I wrote up with all the tips and tricks I’ve picked over the years.
- For parties: You can also make German Chocolate Cupcakes, which makes the cake easier to serve.
- For easier mixing: You can also warm up the butter, sugar, and evaporated milk and temper the eggs before adding them to the saucepan.
- Don’t overmix: Don’t overmix the batter as it keeps the cake tender and prevents toughness.
More Cake Recipes To Consider
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Easy German Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 15.25 ounce package German chocolate cake mix
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Coconut-Almond Frosting
- ½ 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
Instructions
- 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 two greased and floured 9 inch round pans. Bake 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
- You can also baked the cake in a 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.
Coconut-Almond Frosting
- Combine 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.
Video
Notes
- You can also warm up the butter, sugar, and evaporated milk and temper the eggs before adding them to the saucepan.
- Chocolate drizzle, optional – I just melted about ¼ cup of chocolate chips, put it in a Ziploc storage bag, snipped the corner, and drizzled a bit on top.
- Chill before serving: Firms up the frosting for neater slices.
- Use a serrated knife for clean, even cuts when serving.
Naomi
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?
Barbara
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!
Christine
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.
Barbara
Hi Christine. I’m sure he’ll be over the moon for this cake. Have fun!
Christine
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
Barbara
Great – Thanks Christine!
amanda
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.
Barbara
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!
Barbara
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.
Lisa
I was just wondering have you ever tried making this cake with pecans or do the almonds just make it so much better??
Barbara
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.
Lisa
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?
Janelle
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!
Barbara
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!
Sarah
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!
Barbara
Thanks Sarah! So glad you loved it as much as we do.
Carly
Do you think I should double the icing recipe if I am trying to do the double layer with icing in the middle?
Barbara
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!
Suzanne
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
Ashley
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!
Barbara
Thanks Ashley. I hope he loves the cake. Happy Birthday!
Danielle M
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!
Melanie
Loved this cake. I try to avoid genetically modified ingredients as much as possible so ended up purchasing an organic vanilla cake mix. Was a little worried about how I was going to make a vanilla cake chocolate. I made my own buttermilk using vinegar and fat free milk, excluded the vanilla, and used the Baker’s Sweet German Chocolate squares and melted them in 1/2 cup of water. I was worried that I had added too much liquid to the cake batter. It raised beautifully, and was the most moist chocolate cake I’ve had in a really long time! Due to a food allergy, I used pecans in the frosting instead of almonds. Will probably use egg whites only in the frosting next time though. Even stirring constantly, had trouble with the egg cooking too fast on my gas stove. I posted pictures on my blog, http://www.peanutclinicaltrial.blogspot.com. Thanks for the great recipe!
Barbara
Hi Melanie! So glad you loved the cake and your changes worked. If you temper the eggs, slowly beat in a little of the hot liquid to the eggs to warm them up before adding them to the pan, that should eliminate the trouble of the eggs cooking too fast. You could use egg yolks only, typically it’s the egg whites that cause the trouble for me. I’ll add the tip to temper the eggs to the recipe. Thanks for the feedback!
Melinden
Had to make this for Thanksgiving and didn’t have evaporated milk. Substituted Sweetened condensed milk and omitted the sugar. Turned out GREAT! Other personal tweaks added pecans along with the almonds and tempered the eggs before adding to the butter & milk.
Barbara
Hi Melinden – thanks for letting me know you made the cake. Sound like great changes. Quick thinking to sub sweetened condensed milk. I’m so glad you loved the cake.
Melinden
Had to make GCC for thanksgiving. Realized that I didn’t have evaporated milk – I left out the sugar and put in one cup of sweetened condensed milk. AWESOME!
Joyce
I made this cake today for a dinner party we are attending tonight. Just wondering if the measurement on the vanilla in the frosting is correct. One tablespoon …not teaspoon? I used the tablespoon and I hoping it is not a typo.
Barbara
Hi Joyce – I checked the original recipe that my mother-in-law gave me and it is one tablespoon. I hope the cake is a big hit. Please let me know. Thanks!
Marty
Gorgeous looking cake! I love when boxed cake looks so fancy and delectable!
SMITH BITES
was never a ‘cake’ person, but man, give me this frosting and a spoon – and i am a happy camper!! and your cake is beautiful!!
Ashley
This recipe was amazingggg!! I did tweak the cake mix tho but thank u so much! Def does not taste like a box mix! 🙂
Barbara
So glad you loved it. Thanks for coming back and commenting!
Jamie
Yum yum! My dad always made cakes from boxed mixes and with a little doctoring up like you did they were the BEST! Yours looks so good.
Mimi
German chocolate was my Dad's favorite cake. I like the almonds in the frosting.
Mimi
Cristie
German Chocolate Cake is really one of my favorite cakes. That frosting just gets to me it's so good. I love to make mine in three layers, that way I can have extra frosting. I wonder if that adds calories . . .