Shortcut German Chocolate

Happy Birthday to me! Now where did I put that can of frosting? Just kidding!

It’s time to bake my annual Cheater’s German Chocolate Birthday Cake! This cake is called a cheater because it is so easy to throw together it just feels like you’re breaking the rules. Sadly, I do not know who to credit for the original recipe; my copy was passed down from my grandmother. Thanks GMom!
The beauty of this cake is that you do not need a mixing bowl, you don’t need beaters…heck, you don’t even need any non-stick spray to throw it together! Let’s get this party started!

Cheater’s German Chocolate Cake

3 c flour

2 c sugar

1/3 c cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

¾ c vegetable or canola oil

2 c water

2 Tbl white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325˚F

Sift dry ingredients into a non-greased 9x13 pan. You can use either a metal or a glass pan, either way you can’t go wrong!

Level the dry ingredients with a fork,

then make three wells in the dry mixture.

Put vinegar in one well, vanilla in another, and oil in the last. No worries if your oil overflows like mine did. It’ll be okay. Deep breaths.

Add water and mix (don’t beat)...

until there are no lumps. I traded my fork in for a silicon whisk at this point—make sure you get the corners well mixed!

Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

This cake is perfect as is—a moist, rich, chocolate cake that doesn’t even need icing. And it’s vegan! But seeing as how this is my birthday and I promised y’all my German Chocolate Cake…we will proceed.

While the cake bakes, you can make the frosting.

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, egg yolks, butter, and salt. As you can see, I toasted my pecans while I cooked the frosting base, but you can toast your nuts ahead of time. Simply place them in a dry skillet over medium heat and give them a stir every minute or so. They’re toasty when you can smell them. Doing that ahead of time sure would have made my frosting-making a bit less hectic—just a heads-up.

Cook the milk mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to boil and thicken.

Remove from heat and add pecans, coconut, and vanilla.

Stir to combine.

Let it cool until spreadable, 15-20 minutes. Avoid the temptation to simply grab a spoon.

You can stop here, with a beautiful chocolate cake with coconut-pecan frosting. Or you can push it just one step further…

To make a pretty glaze for the top, I combined 3 tablespoons of evaporated milk (leftover from the frosting) with the same amount of chocolate chips. Since I don’t own a microwave, I thought I would be clever and melt it on the stove. Bad idea.

Oh, in the name of all that's inconvenient!

But after a quick break to restore my stove to his former glory, we carry on.

Oooh, glossy!

I used my favorite tiny whisk to stir together the hot milk and chocolate together. When you're heating them up, make sure they do not boil, you only want the milk hot enough to melt the chocolate.

Once the cake has cooled, slather it with frosting!

Then, pour/scoop your chocolate glaze into a zip top bag, snip a tiny bit off one corner, and go crazy.

Until next time!

Cheater’s German Chocolate Cake

3 c flour

2 c sugar

1/3 c cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

¾ c vegetable or canola oil

2 c water

2 Tbl white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325˚F. Sift dry ingredients into a non-greased 9x13 pan. Level off with a fork, then make three wells in the center. Pour vinegar in one well, vanilla in another, and oil in the third. Add water and mix (don’t beat) until no lumps remain, paying careful attention to the corners. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Coconut-Pecan Frosting

1 ¼ c chopped pecans, toasted (I used an entire bag, about 1 ½ c)

1 c sugar

1 c evaporated milk

3 egg yolks, lightly beat

½ c butter, cubed

1/8 tsp salt

1 ½ c sweetened coconut (I used more like 2 c)

½ tsp vanilla

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, egg yolks, butter, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to boil and thicken. Remove from heat and stir in pecans, coconut, and vanilla. Cool until spreadable, 15-20 minutes.

Mini Cakes

Here we go! Mini-baking—my new favorite food experiment. How perfect is this: the ability to have a homemade treat without filling your kitchen with a pile of cupcakes or feeling forced to settle for a store bought monstrosity.


A few years ago, I received a stack of tiny cake pans for Christmas. They’re so stinkin’ cute! If you happen to be lucky (or, like me, spoiled!) enough to have mini cake pans, feel free to break them out for this recipe. If not, never fear! Simply remove the labels from two 14.5 ounce cans and wash them well. Voila! A recycled mini cake pan!

Mini Chocolate Cake (makes 2 cakes-in-a-can, or one 2-layer mini-cake)

1/4 cup milk
1 ½ tablespoons pasteurized egg product (such as Egg Beaters)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Spray the insides of two clean 14.5-ounce cans with nonstick spray. Trace the bottoms of the cans onto parchment paper, then cut out the circles and line the bottoms of the greased cans. Line the sides of the cans with 10”x4.5” strips of parchment paper. Set aside. Alternately, butter the bottoms and sides of two mini cake pans and line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together milk, egg, and vanilla.

Place a wire-mesh sieve over the bowl of a stand mixer. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into bowl. If you’re not working with a stand mixer, sift dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl.

Add butter and half of milk mixture; beat at low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Again, if you’re not using a stand mixer, use a handheld-mixer for this part—see the tip at the end. Increase speed to medium and beat until batter has lightened and increased in volume, about 45 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl.

Add remaining milk mixture, and beat until well blended, about 20 more seconds.

Scrape batter into cans or pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 20 minutes for mini-pan cakes and 30 minutes for can-cakes. Cool 15 minutes on wire rack. Loosen edges of cakes from pans using a small sharp knife; invert cans and remove cakes. Discard parchment paper and allow to cool completely before frosting. Cut in half crosswise; frost between layers and on tops and sides of cakes.

A little visual tip:

The cake in the foreground was created with a mixer, the cake in the background was beat by hand. The choice is yours. Although after leveling them in order to frost, the uglier background cake did yield more cake scraps to munch on…

The following recipe yields enough frosting to frost one 2-layer mini-cake

Small-Batch Chocolate Frosting

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, melted (you can substitute a dark chocolate candy bar for bittersweet baking chocolate if you’re determined to save a few pennies—just make sure it’s P.H.O.-free!)
1/2 tablespoon milk

Cream the butter with an electric mixer, and then pour in vanilla. Add powdered sugar gradually with the mixer on low speed. Beat in the melted chocolate. Slowly add milk, about a teaspoon at a time, with mixer on low speed, until the frosting is spreadable.

Until next time!