By, Cheryl Harwell Bailey

"Mom's German Chocolate Cake"

Carolyn Donaldson Harwell

This is my Mommy and me!
She made and baked the "German Chocolate Cake,"
 each and every
 "Thanksgiving,"and "Christmas,"
 for over 50 years.

It is actually not a "German," cake.
It is a 1950's "American" cake.
The reason for it's name?
The type of semi sweet Bavarian chocolate
 used in the cake.  

German Chocolate Cake Ingredient	Cake Ingredients                                       This recipe calls for:         1 (4-oz.) package of Baker's Sweetened  Chocolate                                 1/2 cup boiling water                                 1 cup butter or margarine                                 2 cups sugar                                 4 egg yolks                                 4 eggs whites                                 1 teaspoon Vanilla                                 2 cups sifted cake flour                                 1 teaspoon baking soda                                 1/2 teaspoon salt                                 1 cup buttermilk
Cake Equipment	Cake Equipment                              For this recipe you will need:                                 Kitchen Aid, or hand mixer                                 bowl                                 measuring cups                                 measuring spoons                                 whisk                                 spatula                                 3 cake pans 8 inches wide                                 cooling racks                                 flour sifter
Mixing Chocolate	Step One:  Melting Chocolate Take one package of Baker's sweetened chocolate and mix it with 1/2 cup of boiling water. You are done mixing the chocolate once it is all dissolved (as seen in the lower left picture). Let this cool before adding it to the mixture in step four. You will want to go ahead and preheat the oven to 350F so it will be ready when you need it.
Butter and Sugar	Step Two:  Mixing Butter Mix 1 cup of butter with 2 cups of sugar until they are fluffy and rich. This should not take but a few minutes.
Adding Egg Yolks	Step Three:  Add Egg Yolks Slowly add in your egg yolks while beating the mixture. Once no more streaks, or spots of yellow remain they have been mixed in well enough.
Adding Chocolate and Vanilla	Step Four:   Add Melted Chocolate Add Chocolate liquid and 1 teaspoon vanilla after the egg yolk is completely mixed in to the batter.
Sifting Flour	Step Five:  Sift Flour It is important to sift the flour in order to remove all the lumps. This is the time when you add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the flour. You may want to do step nine now so that you don't have your cake batter sitting out of the oven too long.
Adding Milk and Flour	Step Six:  Add Milk and Flour Add the milk and flour to the mixture at the same time, but alternating between the two (milk, flour, milk, flour...) Don't stop mixing as you do this. Once you are done beating in the milk and flour, make sure that it is smooth.
	Step Seven:  Beating Egg Whites If you have never beaten egg whites before; it can be tricky, so pay close attention.  Take your four egg whites and beat them at a high speed. When you lift the beater out of the bowl it should have a peak, or pointed tip at the end of it. This means they are done being whipped. They should look exactly like the ones in the lower left picture of this step. This process should take about 5 minutes. You will want to move quickly on to the next step to keep the egg white fluffy. Make sure that there is no egg yolk mixed into your egg whites.
Folding in Egg Whites	Step Eight: Fold in Egg Whites Now fold in your egg whites SLOWLY. DO NOT STIR OR BEAT THEM IN!! This would ruin the cake!
Line and Flour Pans	Step Nine:  Cutting Wax-Paper Use a knife, or a pen to mark a sheet of wax paper around the exterior of the pan. Then cut on the line you just drew. Coat the inside of the pan with shortening. Then put flour on the inside and shake it till the sides and bottom are covered with flour. Then put the cut wax paper in the bottom of the pan. Do this for each of the three cake pans.
Pouring Cake Batter in Pans	Step Ten:   Pour Cake Batter Pour equal amounts of cake batter into 3   greased, floured, and lined 8" cake pans.  Use a rubber spatula to get all the batter.
	Step Eleven:   Baking German Chocolate Cake  Put the cakes in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. Do not open the oven until the cake has been in for the required time, if you do it will fall in the middle.  Stick a tooth pick in your cake after baking. If it comes out clean your cake is done, if it comes out gooey then it needs another five to ten minutes.
	Step Twelve:  Cake Flipping Once your cake layers have cooled for 15  minutes you will need to remove them from their cake pans. Using a knife, or a spatula like the one seen in the picture to the left, cut the cake away from the sides of the cake pan. Then flip it over on a cooling rack and remove the wax paper from cake.