German Chocolate Cake looks pretty good for 50. The combination of tangy-sweet layers and nutty custard is as irresistible as it was when the recipe was first published in a Texas newspaper back in the Eisenhower era. If it were a Reese's cup or an Oreo, German Chocolate Cake would be into its 10th reincarnation by now.
But this is one venerable dessert that needs an homage more than a makeover. If you take the same concept, with essentially the same ingredients, you can produce any number of variations with just as much extravagant flavor and texture but with 2.0 attitude.
The cake is one of the great American desserts despite its name, which comes from the brand of chocolate rather than any homeland. Sam German was the chocolatier who came up with the formula for sweet chocolate that the Baker family sold. The green boxes in the baking aisles of supermarkets today still say "Baker's German's." The name of the genius who first thought of making a cake with the chocolate, and layering it with custard flecked with coconut and pecans, is apparently lost to history.
All that's certain is that the result is essentially a torte that's as American as apple pie.
You can replicate it just by following the recipe on the chocolate box, maybe tweaking it by adding vanilla at the end for maximum impact and using kosher salt for more flavor in both the cake batter and the custard. Substituting heavy cream for the original evaporated milk in the custard produces an airier, better-tasting custard, too.
But why stop there? You can easily transform the cake into brownies, pudding, crepes and other desserts that are German in name only. Rather than reinventing the wheel, the simplest way to do that is by adapting recipes for other chocolate wonders, and adding the custard in some form to make the dessert properly over-the-top.
German's is much sweeter than most chocolate, more like regular chocolate chips, and its effect is comparable to substituting a Dutch process cocoa such as Droste for Hershey's. Depending on the recipe, the sugar should be cut back by one-fourth.
The most obvious makeover is cake into brownies, and one way to do that might be to bake the custard between layers of brownie batter. But an Alice Medrich recipe for bittersweet black-bottom pecan praline bars was inspiring - the topping bakes right into the fudginess. I added coconut to the topping and made the bottom using half a batch of a favorite recipe, Jack Bishop's fudgy double-mocha brownies from his little book Something Sweet.
German's chocolate substitutes for the semisweet Bishop prescribes, and, of course, the Kahlua and espresso powder in the original are omitted. You can cut and eat the brownies right away, but they are better covered for a few hours or overnight and then tucked into; the brownies get gooier, the top crumbles less.
My usual crepes, when given the German-chocolate-cake treatment, turn the outside in: The crepes themselves are made with melted chocolate, enfolding the custard filling, then topped with just a drizzle of melted chocolate and cream. The crepes are not as light (or dull) as regular crepes; they are denser and sturdier, to the point that you could almost serve them as dessert tacos without the sauce.
But the richest way to honor the original dessert is with pudding: Add custard to pots de creme and you reach the same edge of excess. The base is key. At first, I tried adapting lame pudding recipes made with cocoa before stumbling across a sensational recipe by Rose Levy Beranbaum in one of Marcel Desaulniers' many chocolate cookbooks.
With some adjustments for scale, the recipe simply calls for melting chocolate, whisking in egg yolks, adding scalded cream and milk and cooking until thickened. While the pudding is drop-dead rich all on its own, the layers of custard take it to another level of intensity.
Countless other recipes could be given the German-chocolate treatment. But as one last reason for tweaking the classic, consider this: As baked from the recipe on the box, German Chocolate Cake is a pretty hefty investment.
You need a whole box of the chocolate, nearly a pound of butter, eight eggs, a whole bag of sweetened coconut and nearly half a pound of pricey pecans. And that's without counting all the sugar and vanilla and buttermilk.
With the economy sinking like a poorly blended torte, a little nip and tuck is a good thing.
Regina Schrambling writes for the Los Angeles Times.
German Chocolate Cake as Brownies
Serves 16
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (divided use), plus extra for greasing the baking dish
2 ounces Baker's German's or semisweet chocolate, broken into squares or coarsely chopped
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla (divided use)
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup flour (divided use)
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (divided use)
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Thickly butter the bottom of a 9-inch square baking dish.
In a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, combine the chocolate and 4 tablespoons butter, stirring occasionally, until both are melted.
Stir in the sugar, egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and blend well. Add 1/3 cup flour and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and mix well. Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
For the topping: Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons butter. Add the brown sugar and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and mix well. Stir in the egg yolk and remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and mix well.
Combine 1/4 cup flour and baking soda and stir into the batter. Blend in the coconut and pecans. Drop the topping evenly over the prepared base to cover it.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the topping is well-browned. Cool on a rack before cutting into squares. (If you cover the pan for at least 4 hours or overnight, the brownies will be more gooey and easier to cut.)
Modeled on a recipe by Alice Medrich. Recipe analysis provided by the Los Angeles Times.
Per serving: 165 calories, 2 grams protein, 15 grams carbohydrate, 1 gram fiber, 11 grams fat, 5 grams saturated fat, 41 milligrams cholesterol, 87 milligrams sodium
Custard for German Chocolate Cake
Makes about 2 cups
2/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into 1/2 -inch pieces
2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
In a heavy saucepan, combine the cream, sugar, butter, egg yolks and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla, coconut and pecans. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until cooled to room temperature and thickened, about 30 to 45 minutes.
Per tablespoon: 96 calories, 1 gram protein, 6 grams carbohydrate, 0 grams fiber, 8 grams fat, 4 grams saturated fat, 27 milligrams cholesterol, 28 milligrams sodium
Recipe analysis provided by the Los Angeles Times.