German chocolate cake reminds me of two things. The first is back in 2018, when I worked at a hotel in Inglewood, and I had a boss who threw a giant stink because I was not bringing desserts into the office frequently(because every time I would, nobody would eat them so it was a giant waste of ingredient-money and time). On my last day, I made that boss a German chocolate cake as a thank-you for hiring me, since she specified that was her favorite cake, and she almost had the audacity to not eat a slice(reiterating why I stopped bringing desserts to work) and I basically had to drop a slice of the cake off at her desk and force her to eat it. Honestly, that was annoying. It’s not like I The Help‘d the cake or anything. I genuinely did bake it to thank her, since prior to that job, I was straight out of college and unemployed. Yeah, 22-23 year old Fred had it a bit rough back then. honestly. Right after college, I got into a relationship, then my ex dumped me right before a job interview, which was for the hotel in Inglewood. Hilariously, despite trying not to cry through the job interview, I still got the job, and it was for that German chocolate cake-loving boss, which I could go into in-depth, but I will leave that experience at the anecdote I mentioned about the cake, because all of that is long since behind me now. I will be honest, my early to mid-20’s were probably some of the most miserable, trying, and confusing times of my life, so when I reminisce about some of those moments, they might not sound that great, but I try to still look back on the memories fondly. Or at least fondly enough. Really just ages 21-25 were rough because nothing was really set in stone for me, from my personal life to my career, but at the same time, I probably grew the most during those years and learned the most about myself.

Then fast forward to a year later, still in my early 20’s, and probably my most well-known connection to German chocolate cake was baking a decently-received take on it for Masterchef season 10. I chose this cake because I made it for my ex-boss a year ago. When we did the challenge, I assumed that we were not getting recipes for the cakes we chose, so I went with a cake that I could make without any assistance or guidance. Since I’m out of my NDA, I can confirm that after choosing our cakes, we received the recipes for them and got to use them during the challenge – I was actually pretty pissed about that, since it could have neutered any advantage I had having pastry recipes in my back pocket. That and I played it safe because I thought we would not get any recipes. If I had known, I would have grabbed the Opera cake; I knew how to bake jaconde sponge, but was not 100% sure what the fillings were. So in season 12, when we had a similar challenge, knowing that I was probably getting a recipe is what incentivized me to grab the more technical Paris Brest, since I knew if there was any fillings or components that were unlike the ones I make at home, I would be getting the recipe anyways. Fortunately my cake was still well-received(they edited it out, but Shari, myself, Micah, and Wuta were declared the top 5 for that challenge along with Dorian). Instead of just having the top 5 outright standing in the front of the stations like a normal challenge, after Dorian was announced the winner, Gordan said “Shari, Fred, Micah, and Wuta, the four of you might not have won, but you all made impressive cakes were all very close to winning” in that order, which indicates to me that Shari was the runner-up, I was 3rd, Micah was 4th, and Wuta was 5th for that challenge. He then went down the line on who else was safe, telling them all that they were in the middle, so that’s how Bri, Renee, and Nick all knew that they were on the chopping block. Some fun behind-the-scenes stuff was that edited out.

So while both instances of me making German chocolate cake might not be my favorite memories, between a previous boss being standoffish towards me about one and me feeling like a salty moron for choosing it over something more difficult, I still love the dessert! Chocolate cake, this caramelized coconut-pecan filling, and depending on your recipe, a ganache to add richness. So I wanted to make a new version of German chocolate cake, but with a vegan twist! For this cake, we have a rich chocolate cake, a caramelized haupia and pecan filling, a coconut milk soak, and a pecan butter ganache. The cake batter itself is really easy to make, since it is vegan and requires no butter or eggs to be whipped. It literally is just mix it, dump it, bake it. For the filling, I went the haupia route – haupia is a Hawaiian coconut pudding that is made with coconut milk, sugar, and thickened with cornstarch. Traditional German chocolate cake uses a filling made with sweetened condensed milk, cornstarch, eggs, and has pecans and coconut flakes folded into it. To help achieve an equally rich filling, coconut milk is a no brainer, while I also caramelized the sugar for my haupia filling to give it a complexity that would be harder to achieve with sweetened condensed milk(unless you dulce de leche it). The caramelized haupia filling still has the toasted coconut and pecans folded through it, and it is one of those things I probably would never have tried making until I made this recipe vegan – but I am so glad that I did, because the filling is delicious! With the ganache, since the filling was fairly coconut-forward and the cake is being soaked with coconut milk, I made my own pecan butter by pureeing pecans with coconut oil and salt, then I folded that with melted chocolate to make a pecan butter ganache to enrobe the entire cake with. This was honestly a fun recipe to make, and it adds another page to the German chocolate saga in my life.

For the chocolate cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup black cacao powder
1 tbsp instant coffee
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
8oz hot water
1 tbsp black vinegar
4oz canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, combine all of your ingredients and whisk them together until a smooth batter is formed. Pour the batter into a parchment-lined quarter sheet tray and spread it into an even layer. Bake the batter at 350 degrees F for 22 minutes. Allow the cake to fully cool before cutting out two 6-inch rounds of the cake and forming a third round with the remaining cake scraps. Freeze the disks of cake for optimal assembly.

For the caramel pecan haupia:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
8oz coconut milk, in two parts
.5oz cornstarch
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup toasted coconut flakes
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped into smaller pieces

In a pot, heat up the granulated sugar until it turns an amber brown color. Pour one part of coconut milk over that, and stir everything on medium-low heat until the sugar fully dissolves into the liquid. In a bowl, whisk together the remaining coconut milk with cornstarch and salt. Pour that into the pot with the caramelized coconut milk and whisk everything together on medium heat for 2-3 minutes, until the coconut milk thickens to the consistency of pudding – this is your caramel haupia. Pass the haupia through a sieve to remove any lumps, and fold into that the vanilla, toasted coconut, and toasted pecan bits to form your haupia filling. Refrigerate it, covering the surface with cling warp, until time to assemble the cake.

For the soak:
6oz coconut milk
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix together the ingredients to form your soak.

For initial assembly:
Line a. 6-inch ring mold with an acetate collar. Place the mold onto a lined sheet tray that can fit into your freezer. Start by placing down the scrap layer of the cake, then add to that 1/3 of your soak. Then add to that roughly 40% of the haupia mixture. Repeat these steps with the next round of the cake. For the last layer, place down the third round of cake and the remainder of your soak. You will be reserving the remaining 20% of the haupia for the top garnish. Transfer the cake to the freezer for at least 4 hours.

For the pecan butter ganache:
1 cup pecans, toasted
2 tbsp coconut oil
a pinch of salt
1 cup dark chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp black cacao powder

In a food processor, puree the toasted pecans, coconut oil, and salt until a smooth peanut butter-like paste forms – if needed, you can add up to 1.5oz of water to help the mixture process faster. Pass it through a sieve to remove any lumps or chunks. In a heatproof bowl, completely melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler, and then fold into that the pecan butter, vanilla, and black cacao powder to form your ganache. Allow the ganache to refrigerate until chilled down, then rewhip it until just spreadable.

For final assembly:
Gold leaf

Spread the pecan butter ganache around the frozen solid cake. Garnish the top with a spread dollop of the haupia mixture and garnish the edges with gold leaf to finish.