German Chocolate Cake

Yum!!!

Living in Florida, we are regularly in contact with people that have coconut trees, avocado trees, and mango trees. One of my coworkers brought in shopping bags full of coconuts. I took one and took it home. This is always a nice addition to our home because my husband ate them regularly growing up in Africa. 

The tricky part about coconut is getting through the thick green shell and then the rock hard brown shell. Not having a power saw or machete in the house, I asked my husband to crack the mysterious code of opening this coconut without spilling the milk. 

He was able to drain the milk and then open the coconut completely. I set the milk aside and started grating the coconut with a hand grater. 

What can I do with this grated coconut? GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE FROSTING!!! This frosting is so good, I could eat it alone. Goes along nicely with the Christmas / New Years season of decadence. 

I happened to have these Duncan Hines Perfect Size cakes I purchased at Publix. They are reasonable sized cakes if you don't want a lot of sweets laying around after serving. Ideal for 2-6 people depending on how it is sliced. 

The price is $3.19 but they were BOGO. I had a $1 off 2 MQ. I, then, added 2 ($1 off 1 box) Publix coupon. That makes the total price 60¢ each!

The cake calls for eggs and also contains a chocolate frosting packet. I needed to substitute the eggs for my husband. I was looking to make German chocolate cake so I set the frosting packet aside for future use. Since coconut was involved in the recipe, I used coconut oil instead of eggs. 

It was difficult to find a frosting recipe without eggs. I took to researching and found a vegan recipe that does not use eggs.  I found this blog with great recipes including the German chocolate frosting using soy milk and coconut milk. I substituted the soy milk for almond milk. 

 The difficult thing about this recipe was that the frosting did not stick well on the sides of the cakes. 

I decided to not fight it falling and offer a non-traditional cake with loads of frosting on top and in between layers. Not a bad concession prize!

Maybe next time, I'll use evaporated milk instead of almond milk; canned coconut milk instead of fresh coconut milk; and less coconut oil.