Week 47 - German Chocolate-Black Forest Cake
Week 47 was Chris' birthday week, so I decided to make a cake we invented a few years ago. Typically I would make him either a German chocolate cake or a black forest cake but a couple of years ago Chris came up with the idea of combining the two and the German Chocolate-Black Forest Cake was born. To make the cake this year, I used two cookbooks; "The Hood Basic Cook Book" from 1949, for the frosting and cake and 1999s "The Best Recipe" for the German chocolate filling.
"The Hood Basic Cook Book", from 1949
"The Best Recipe" from 1999
I wanted a rich, chocolate cake so used the recipe for Devil's Food Cake. This recipe called for bakers chocolate, rather than powdered cocoa to be used so the butter and chocolate had to be melted on the stovetop first. Once all the wet ingredients are mixed together, the dry ones are slowly added in. I didn't want to make a full-sized cake, so cut the recipe in half and put the batter in four small cake tins. I was a bit concerned about how these would bake but they came out perfect.
For the frosting, I used the Hood recipe for rich chocolate frosting. Like the batter, this recipe also used baking chocolate and needed to be cooked on the stovetop. Then I made the German chocolate filling, made with condensed milk, pecans and coconut and also cooked on the stove.
To assemble the cakes I put a ring of frosting on the edge of the first layer and filled it with the German chocolate filling. For the next two layers, I sliced one of the small cakes in half, sprinkled it with cherry liquor, added another ring of frosting and topped it with cherry pie filling. After that the final layer of cake was added.
Layer one
Layer two, with German chocolate filling
Layer three with cherries
After the cakes were assembled, I frosted the outside and topped them again with a bit of the German chocolate filling and cherries. The final cake is very tasty. The devil's food cake recipe and frosting from the Hood cookbook were very good. The cake itself was light and moist and the frosting smooth and chocolatey. The "Best Recipes" German chocolate filling is one I've used many times before and is very rich and sweet. The recipe made two small three layer cakes, enough for 4 servings.
The final cakes
Cookbook: "The Hood Basic Cook Book", from 1949 and "The Best Recipe", from 1999.
Recipe: Devil's food cake and rich chocolate frosting from "The Hood Basic Cook Book" and German chocolate filling from "The Best Recipe" book
Difficulty: Fairly easy, but cooking the cake, frosting and filling, on the stovetop, does take a bit more time.
Alterations: I halved the cake, frosting and filling recipes. The cake assebly is Chris and my invention.
Results: very good
Make Again: I would use the cake and frosting recipes again. I've already made the German chocolate-black forest cake before.