German Chocolate Cake

I had never baked a cake entirely from scratch before. Granted I make cheesecakes all the time, but to make a real honest-to-goodness moist chocolate cake from nothing but flour sugar butter and eggs - that was a real treat. I am involving myself even further in this year's Eastern Dinner. I am making even more deserts and I am branching out from the standard pies and cheesecake.

Last week at work I was watching, not casually glancing at - I was flat-out watching, "Throw-down with Bobby Flay." He went to Harlem and took on a local woman who is famous for her German Chocolate Cake. I was enthralled. To be perfectly honest, German Chocolate Cake has very little appeal to me. I prefer a Devil's Food, or Double Chocolate Cake. However when I saw this woman and Bobby each make these beautiful cakes I knew I had to try my hand at it.

This was truly an amazing experience. It came out perfectly and my very first try, and what's more, my whole family loved it. Yum! I frosted the cake with the traditional German Chocolate Cake frosting made of pecans, sugar, butter, and coconut. Instead of frosting the sides of the cake with the traditional frosting, I took a page from Bobby's book and covered the cake in a chocolate ganache and dressed it with more coconut and chopped roasted pecans. The result, as you can see, was delicious.
My recipe came from: http://www.myhomecooking.net/german-chocolate-cake/
This website had detailed instructions and pictures to help with technique and visualize how things should look at each stage. It was extremely helpful. Enjoy!