German Chocolate Cake Recipe (2024)

Cake was very nice. 5 egg yolks in the frosting was daunting so I used dulce leche with unsweetened Trader Joe's coconut and roasted pecans with a splash of Kahlua instead

I agree with elle that the whites (plus the whites from the coconut pecan frosting) should be beaten stiff and then folded in to the batter, but I suggest that whole milk, unsalted cultured buttermilk makes the best cake. I suspect that modern cooks are more likely to have yogurt or sour cream on hand, AND good quality buttermilk is not readily available, BUT, as they used to teach us, a job worth doing is worth doing well.

Interesting interpretation of this glorious cake. The ganache diminishes the beauty of the rustic nature of the cake. Second, the eggs should be separated w/ the whites beaten to peaks as that makes the texture more delicate. Then, the difference between milk, yogurt, or sour cream is another monkey wrench -- a wetter batter results from the milk (obviously) and the yogurt totally takes away from a sweetness that that cake mandates. As a former pastry chef, the best recipe is on the box.

What she doesn't say - but is an absolute necessity - is to cook the egg yolks, etc., etc., (steps 5 and 6) and bring to a boil. If you want a sauce to thicken, it must come to a boil, period. Not letting the "mixture to curdle" seems to be code for, "I am professional - you are amateur - best of luck figuring it out."

There’s a few things about this recipe that I’m not a fan of as an avid German chocolate cake maker. The first thing is the flour. Yes you can make cakes with all purpose flour but if you want the velvetiness and consistency, you should always use cake flour for your cakes. It’s a more fine grind and makes cakes so much better. Second, I’ve never put whole eggs in my cake recipes for GCC, but I always use egg whites only. It think this would dramatically change the texture.

I really wish recipe developers would stop calling for kosher salt in cakes. There’s a big difference in the size of the crystals between brands. You might think that wouldn’t matter, but consider it in terms of percentages. Table salt disperses better in the batter and measures consistently.

The baking temp is the same - the time may be longer due to the size of the pan. I would rotate the 9x13 pan after 15 minutes and check it at 25 minutes by sticking a toothpick in the center. If not done at 25 minutes, give it 5-10 minutes more based on what you see. A cake (especially chocolate) can go from a few crumbs on a toothpick to a clean toothpick in a matter of minutes.

Does anyone know what the baking temp and time would be if you made this as a 9x13 sheet cake?

This was the best cake I have baked. The taste was awesome and it remained moist for the entire 3 day life cycle. Could be a bit more frosting, but the cake looked NYish with the edges not having the frosting. The ganache did help out. But wouldn't change a thing otherwise.

I just wanted to point out that the recipe as written currently does not call of milk, yogurt, or sour cream, as some readers have disparaged. It says, “plain whole milk yogurt or sour cream” (i.e. yogurt or sour cream). So no need to worry about the batter being too wet from milk.

With 9” pans, it worked well for me to multiply cake ingredient weights by 1.28 and use 4 eggs. Plenty of filling and ganache in recipe as written.

Overall, really delicious cake. Unfortunately, the batter didn't spread as much as I had been expecting, so the shape of each layer was a little lopsided. The ganache certainly helped bring things together, but it wasn't the most elegant cake I've ever made.

Thank you for those of you that mentioned the cake was crumbly! It indeed is, but do it anyway it is SO delicious. The taste and texture when eating is almost like a flourless chocolate cake, strangely. I have made many GCC for a friend who loves them, and I liked this taste the best. Just mash together those crumbs and stuff in your face. Yum!Also agreed, wait for the icing mixture to come to a simmer before pulling off the heat, it doesn't thicken until it simmers.

Good made for toms65th

This was absolutely wonderful: rich, tender, and flavorful, and very different from the too-sweet German chocolate cakes I've had in the past. I increased the ganache to 8oz chocolate/1 c. cream, chilled it, then whipped it, so it spread more like frosting. I'll be making this one again!

My filling DID curdle. I pushed it through a strainer to get out the scrambled egg, but it was too thick to be pleasant. The cake batter, similarly, was very thick and hard to spread in the pan. The cake itself tastes wonderful, but it was basically a mountain of crumbs on the plate.

After reading other notes I used cake flour and doubled the baking soda. We thoroughly enjoyed this cake! The filling was so good. I’ll definitely make this again.

Wonderful. May be the best tasting cake I've made. Worth the effort.

I’m an avid baker and this cake turned out very dry and crumbly. I was embarrassed to serve it. This was my first NYT recipes fail. I bake for every occasion, and it pains me to say that a supermarket German chocolate cake would have been better than what this recipe yielded me. Would not recommend at all.

Very carefully made this cake exactly as directed. Dry as a bone; fell apart.

Made the recipe with buttermilk, as the comments recommended. So good! Crumbly, but in a good way, and I didn’t find it hard to handle or slice at all. The ganache was a good addition

Okay. Cake was crumbly. Taste was good.

This cake is absolutely outstanding! I used the following suggestions: I switched out cake flour for all purpose and high quality buttermilk for sour cream/yogurt (seasoned baker here and I agree with those recommendations) After reading the comments on making the filling, I decided to try making it with in my vitamix using the soup setting and it turned out wonderfully-velvety, thick and perfect! So happy!

Good flavor but very crumbly as others have stated. I baked my 8” pans for 20 minutes, rotating half way through.

Been making a German Chocolate Cake for more than 50 years and I still use an old version of the recipe from the wrapper around the bar of German Chocolate. It calls for cake flour (my preferred flour for cakes) and buttermilk. It's a soft, chocolatey, heavenly cake that never fails to impress.

Ugliest cake I ever made, 2 of 3 layers crumbled coming out of the pan, so I had to Frankenstein it and it was a hot mess. But. It was delicious. I especially enjoyed the less-sweet icing. I used a stiff creme fraiche instead of sour cream, so that may have contributed to the crumbly texture.

The dark chocolate ganache (made with Kirkland chocolate chips) was deemed by all to be inappropriate. The dark chocolate overwhelmed the taste of the cake. A lighter chocolate icing would be better or maybe a milk chocolate ganache. Or just serve it without icing (although my partner insists on icing since there was icing on the cake served at the Woolworth's lunch counter in his youth. Or was it Kresge's?)

I found the cake layers to be a bit dry, even after baking for only 19 minutes. The combination of cocoa, semi-sweet chocolate and coffee along with the dark ganache resulted in too ”dark” a flavor for German chocolate cake. The flavor of the cake did not marry well with the coconut pecan filling. I suggest a lighter chocolate version for the layers- skip the coffee and yogurt and just use buttermilk. I agree that kosher salt doesn’t melt into the cake layers as nicely as fine sea salt.

Why do German chocolate cake recipes no longer call for German’s Chocolate? It creates a much paler brown cake that lets the filling shine.

What happened? My filling was like soup. Tried to chill and it never thickened