German Chocolate Cake!

Hello!

My friend asked me to make a cake for her chefs birthday this week. She works at Franks N' Dawgs in Lincoln Park--side note: if you've never been there, go. They make the most delicious and unique dogs and sausages fresh in the smallest kitchen possible. Its unreal. GO.

Side tracked a bit..
I love love love German chocolate cake. Making it however is another story. The icing starts with boiling all your spices and sugars, butter and cream together, then tempering in your yolks to make a really simple stirred custard. A ridiculous amount of coconut and pecans (I add almonds too. :o]) is folded in, and-traditionally-it is then poured on to the cake while it's still warm. You might see a lot of German chocolate cakes with the cake layers visible, which i actually love...
I, however, decided to make my life harder by icing the sides.
Everything turned out alright! Only after icing, chilling, icing, chilling, repeat repeat repeat!
I, to this day (obviously), do not know how you would make this process easier, as this icing is thick, but still slowly slides down the cake because it is SO heavy.
I've heard some people add cornstarch to the icing, which would definitely make sense.. it would be more of a true pastry cream base.

Any hoo- After a few deep breaths and 8 cups of coffee to calm my nerves (doesn't quite make sense?), the cake went out the next morning in its lovely box with a bow and I heard nothing but good things.
Happy days, and Happy Birthday to Joe from Franks N' Dawgs!


Till next time,
Kim.