Almond Bliss German Chocolate Cupcakes

It was my week to host Project Pastry Queen and of course, I went straight for the cake section. I've had al ot of success with Rebecca Rather's cakes and I was looking forward to adding another to my list. Unfortunately for me, I chose this recipe for one of the hottest weekends of the year to date. I wouldn't be surprised if no one ends up participating in this week's project - heat from the 100 degree California sun combined with the 350 degrees of radiating heat from the oven is enough to make anyone break a sweat, or two, or fifty. I have provided the recipe for the full 3-layer cake but as you can see, I adapted the recipe for the cupcake version.

Almond Bliss German Chocolate Cake
from The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather

Ingredients

For the cake
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

For the icing
1 1/2 cups sliced almonds
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups sweetened cream of coconut, such as Coco Lopez
5 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line the bottom of three 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper rounds, grease with butter, and dust with flour.

Place the chocolate in a small saucepan, pour the boiling water over, and stir until the chocolate has dissolved completely. If it doesn't dissolve completely place the pan on the stove top over low heat and stir until it does. Remove from the heat to cool.

Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl on medium-high speed about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks and beat on medium-high for 1 minutes. Stir the baking soda in the buttermilk until it dissolves. Add half of the buttermilk mixture alternately with the half of the flour, mixing on low speed after each addition. Repeat with the remaining buttermilk mixture and flour. Stir in the salt, chocolate mixture, and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate chips.

In a clean medium bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed, using a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, until soft peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate batter using a large rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pans. Stagger the cake layers on the oven racks so that no layer is directly over another. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean. Cool the cakes on the pans for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto racks and cool completely.

To make the icing:
Arrange the almond slices on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast them fro 5 to 7 minutes, until golden brown and aromatic (watch them closely they will burn quickly.) Cool the nuts completely.

Heat the milk, cream of coconut, and butter in a saucepan over medium heat until the butter has completely melted. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch until smooth. Slowly pour 3 tablespoons of the hot milk mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, into the yolk mixture, whisking briskly until the yolks have absorbed the hot liquid. (Pouring in a little of the hot liquid helps temper the eggs, which keeps them from curdling.) Slowly pour the tempered yolk mixture into the hot milk mixture still set over medium heat, whisking constantly. Continue whisking about 7 to 10 minutes, until the mixture thickens, takes on the consistency of custard, and seems thick enough to spread. Stir in the coconut and almonds. Let the icing cool for 15 minutes.

Place 1 cake layer on a serving platter and cover the top generously with frosting. Add the second and third layers, frosting the top of each. Do not frost the sides of the cake, but it's okay if some of the icing oozes out.

Wrap the cake well if you do not plan to serve it within a few hours. It can be refrigerated up to 3 days.

My adaptions:

• I halved the recipe and made ~17 cupcakes. I baked the cupcakes for ~15 minutes.

• I wasn't too sure if my custard filling was going to look very pretty as a topping so I opted to cup holes into the cupcakes and fill each one with the custard. The filling didn't resemble the standard gooey filling we normally associate with German Chocolate Cake, probably because of the coconut cream that was used.

• I whipped up some cream with powered sugar to use as the topping and finished the cupcakes off with some toasted unsweetened coconut flakes.

All in all, can't say I was too big of a fan of this German Chocolate Cake iteration. My go-to chocolate cake would still have to be the Tuxedo Cake from Pastry Queen. To see how other PPQ members faired, visit:

Fake Ginger