Dense German Chocolate Cake

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4.85 from 19 votes

Dense German Chocolate Cake

Fluffy cake is for the birds. Indulge in a decadently dense cake. Be sure to read the whole recipe before starting.

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, German

Servings: large slices

Calories: 1501kcal

Author: Amy

Ingredients

Cake

2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter room temp
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
6 eggs room temperature
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 pkg chocolate pudding mix
2 ¼ cups buttermilk
1 cup chocolate chips

Glaze

1 cup sugar
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting

2 cups evaporated milk room temp
2 tablespoons corn starch
2 cups sugar
6 egg yolks (beaten) room temp
1 cup butter room temp
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chopped pecans lightly toasted
2 cups toasted coconut

Instructions

Frosting

Start with the frosting, so it has time to cool.
Preheat oven to 350°. Place chopped pecans on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until fragrant. About 5-7 minutes. If you're coconut did not come toasted, place it on the same sheet and allow to toast for the same time.
Combine all other frosting ingredients (not nuts and coconut) in a large pot and bring to a slow boil. Once boiling, stir continuously for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add nuts and coconut. Frosting will thicken as it cools.

Cake

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour 4 cake pans. (Coconut oil or butter work best - just don't use non-stick spray, it doesn't work.)
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine sugar, butter and vanilla. Add eggs, mixing after each one.
In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Alternating between dry ingredients and buttermilk, add to the wet ingredients, mixing well after each addition.
Add chocolate chips and mix. Bake for 25-30 minutes until center bounces back when touched lightly.

Glaze

Make glaze while cakes are baking.
Bring all ingredients, except vanilla, to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, stir for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
Pour glaze over cakes in the pan right out of the oven. Allow cakes to rest and soak up the glaze for 10 minutes.
When you pop the cakes out of the pan, place between layers of wax paper. Place a cutting board (or other heavy, flat object) on top of cakes and smush them for 1 hour. This keeps the cakes extra dense!
Assemble the cake with frosting between each layer and all over top and sides. OR wrap each layer in plastic wrap and freeze until ready to use.

Notes

This is I bit time consuming so I made this 2 days ahead of time and stored the cake and frosting in the fridge. On the day of my husband's birthday, I took the frosting out in the morning so it could come to room temp. Then at party time I took the cake layers out of the fridge and frosted 3 layers for the perfect cake to frosting ratio. You can do a 4 layer cake and go a little lighter on the frosting or just keep it as a bonus cake. Enjoy!

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