Kid Sized German Chocolate Cake

Often for little kids, the only thing better than dessert, is a kid-sized dessert. I had initially planned on making German Chocolate Cake, but right before putting the cake pans into the oven, I decided to take a half cup of cake batter and place it into an 8 oz ceramic ramekin.

Once the mini cake was split into thirds, I had a perfect kid-sized cake to match the full size cake shown below.

The recipes are mostly adapted from America's Test Kitchen:

Chocolate Cake
1¼ cups (6¼ oz) all-purpose flour
12 Tbsp (6 oz) unsalted butter – make sure this is room temperature
1¼ cups (8¾ oz) sugar
2 large eggs – make sure to use large as extra large or jumbo would be too much
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup (1½ oz) unsweetened cocoa – personally I think Ghirardelli is the best 
2 tsp coffee powder
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Parchment paper
**If available, use a scale since it will lead to the most accurate measurements and the best cake.

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Butter and flour two 8 inch cake pans and place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom.
  
• In a mixer beat the butter and sugar until well mixed and fluffy – do not worry about over mixing this.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining dry ingredients (flour, baking soda salt, cocoa, & coffee powder) and set aside.
• In a liquid measuring cup mix the milk and vanilla and set aside.
• Returning to the butter and sugar in the mixer, turn the mixer back on to medium speed and add eggs one at a time. Letting each egg fully incorporate with a minute of mixing.
• Drop the mixer to its lowest speed and alternate adding the dry ingredients followed immediately by the wet. Mix just until the batter is fully combined and has a nice satin finish. Caution, over mixing will lead to a cake with a poor rise.
• Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
• Bake until a toothpick comes out from the center clean (about 25 minutes).
• Let cool before assembling with the coconut-pecan filling.

Coconut-Pecan Filling
2 egg yolks
½ cup (3½ oz) sugar
Pinch salt
4 Tbsp (2 oz) butter melted and cooled
½ cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup toasted and chopped pecans
1 cup shredded and lightly sweetened coconut

• Mix the egg yolks, sugar, salt, butter, heavy cream, and vanilla extract in a sauce pan over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken and the temperature reaches 175 degrees. Take off heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
• Stir in pecans and coconut.

Chocolate Icing
8 oz milk or semisweet chocolate – cocoa content around 50% seems to be the most popular for this icing
¾ cup water
2 Tbsp corn syrup
½ tsp vanilla extract

• Bring the water and corn syrup to a boil. Remove from heat and then pour the hot mixture over the chocolate. Mix together and then add the vanilla.
• Let cool in the refrigerator for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Bakers

Food is a passionate topic for many people. Some turn poetic as they savor the delicate texture of a perfect chocolate soufflé; others focus on the health aspects of anything that is put on their plate.

For me, food is a way of life. Of course you need to eat to live, but when I first started working, food was my family's livelihood. In our little San Francisco bakery, I worked alongside my father and grandfather. I will forever be the junior baker of the three, but this is fine with me since I’ve always known that I will never surpass my grandfather’s resume of 83 years as a professional baker.

The photo above was taken a couple of years after my grandfather retired. Needless to say, whenever there is a family meal everyone has an opinion on dessert.

It has been many years since my family sold our bakery, but in the past few years I slowly developed an interest in baking at home.