#lonelysniper

I had a design in mind from the start, so the only question was flavor, which I left up to him. A German Chocolate Cake with the traditional coconut pecan topping, like his mom used to make him (from scratch!) for his birthday when he was growing up.

Oh... a scratch-made, mother's-love-filled, childhood-dream cake. No pressure. Needless to say, I was worried, but you, dear reader, need not to worry, as I can now guarantee this recipe results in a super moist, delicately chocolatey, painfully delicious cake. For maximum wow-factor, I topped it all off with a gum paste dragon (complete with fireball candle!), cascading jewel-Skittles (his favorite candy), and a Dungeons&Dragons-esque picture of the birthday boy himself.

(yield: I tripled this recipe and ended up with 3 9-inch cakes and over 2 dozen cupcakes. I also tripled the frosting, and wound up with barely enough for the cake--left about 16 cupcakes bare in case of nut allergies or coconut aversions.)

German Chocolate Cake:

4 oz Baker's German Sweet Chocolate

1/2 c boiling water

1 c butter

2 c sugar

4 eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla

2 c AP flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 c buttermilk

Topping:

1 c evaporated milk

1 c brown sugar

3 egg yolks

1/2 c butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 c chopped pecans

1 1/3 c flaked coconut

Special Stuff:

9-in round pan (or whatever you want to bake it in)

cupcake pan (or whatever you want to bake it in) + liners

a large sauce pan for the topping

lots of bowls for melting and mixing and separating eggs

Directions for Topping:

If you're baking & decorating the cake on the same day, start the topping first, as it takes awhile to cook!

Combine the evaporated milk, butter, brown sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract a large sauce pan.

Cook over a low heat, stirring frequently, until thick. This took me about 30 minutes.

Remove from heat before stirring in pecans and coconut.

Let cool to room temperature before applying to cake!

I apologize for not taking any pictures of this topping, but it was so easy. You don't need a visual--I promise.

Directions for Cake:

Preheat your oven to 350*F.

Separate the eggs (bowls 1 & 2)--both the whites and yolks will be used!

In a small bowl (3), melt the chocolate with the boiling water.

In a separate bowl (4), cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg yolks.

To this mixture, add the melted chocolate and vanilla.

In another separate bowl (5), mix the flour, baking soda, and salt. I ran out of bowls at this point and had to use a giant ceramic solo cup my mom bought me. And hey, it even matches my apron. Thanks, Mom!

Slowly add the flour mixture to the contents of bowl 4, about 1/3 at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.

Beat the egg whites. Don't stop at the "Matt Smith's floppy hair" stage (pictured below)! Continue to beat until you form stiff peaks.

Fold the egg whites very carefully into the rest of the batter. Try to keep as much air in as possible--stop as soon as it's just combined!

Pour the batter into your baking vessel of choice. About 1/3 of the batter in a 9-inch round pan will bake for 30 minutes. Cupcakes should be checked every so often, as I can't remember how long those took. 12-15 minutes would be my guess. You're on your own for figuring that out. I believe in you!

Allow to cool completely before adding the pecan-coconut topping. I baked my cakes a day in advance and stored them in cling-wrap in the fridge, but I really recommend making the topping day-of if possible.

Fun Fact: Traditionally, this isn't a completely "covered" cake! The topping is added in between layers and on the top of the top cake, but not on the sides.

And there you have it! Another perfect way to procrastinate show someone how much you care about them and value their friendship/existence.

I wish I had some Dungeons & Dragons terminology to work into this closing paragraph, but I can't think of anything clever. I could try to say something about rolling a D20, or the ways in which delicious cake may or may not fit the chaotic good alignment, but I don't know enough about D&D to attempt that... so here's a picture of Riley cutting into his cake! (If you pretend the knife is a sword, it's even more D&D themed.)