National Black Forest Cake Day - Mar. 28th; Chef Nancy Silverton

Chef Nancy Silverton

Nancy Silverton trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London, and Ecole Le Notre in Plaiser, France. She’s the co-founder and head baker at La Brea Bakery. She’s written 4 cookbooks, and won several awards, including Best Pastry Chef by the James Beard Foundation (1990).

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March 28th is my dad’s birthday, and his favorite cake is not Black Forest, but German Chocolate, so I'm sharing that instead.

German Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
1 pkg (4 oz.) German Sweet Chocolate

1/2 C. boiling water

1 C. butter

2 C. sugar

4 egg yolks, unbeaten

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 C. sifted flour

1 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 C. buttermilk

4 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Directions: Melt chocolate in water until melted; cool. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time to sugar mixture, beating after each. Add vanilla and cooled chocolate; mix until blended. Add dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk, beat after each addition until batter is smooth. Fold in egg whites. Place a circle of waxed paper into the bottom of 3 8" or 9" layer pans (so just the bottom is covered). Pour batter into pans and bake at 350ºF for 35-40 min. Cool before turning out of pans. Finish cake with coconut-pecan filling.

Coconut-Pecan FillingIngredients:
1 stick butter

1 C. evaporated milk

1 C. sugar

3 egg yolks

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/3 C. coconut

1 C. chopped pecans

Directions: Combine first 5 ingredients, and cook over medium heat until thickened (about 12 minutes). Remove from heat and add the coconut and pecans. Cool, and beat. Use to fill the layers of German chocolate cake.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

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