Non-Dairy German Chocolate Cake Tweaking
July is birthday month for my daughter and me. We celebrated last weekend–a bit early for both of us, but it was when our family could gather together. I baked the latest dairy-free rendition of the traditional family birthday cake, German’s Chocolate.
I last baked one of these in September of 2013 for Mom’s birthday. Both then and now, I used the original German Chocolate cake recipe, which can be found online. This time, I used soured coconut milk instead of soured rice milk. We all agreed it added body to the cake. These are the dairy-free substitutions used in the cake:
- Replace the cup of butter with 2 Earth Balance buttery vegan sticks.
- Replace the buttermilk with soured A Taste of Thai regular (not lite) coconut milk. To sour the coconut milk, put 1 tablespoon vinegar in a measuring cup and add coconut milk to the 1 cup line. Let sit 15 minutes.
The coconut milk remaining in the can was just enough for the coconut-pecan frosting. It wasn’t the perfect replacement for evaporated milk, but it’s the best substitute yet. Once again, here’s the frosting recipe Mom found years ago in a magazine. It’s different from the one found inside the Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate box, and one I’ve never seen anywhere else. It’s been adjusted to be dairy-free, too:
Easy Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting
3/4 cup canned coconut milk 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan sticks
1 teaspoon vanilla 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 1/3 cups shredded coconut 1 cup chopped pecans
Combine milk, sugars, butter and vanilla in a sauce pan. Bring to a full boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. (Mixture may appear curdled.) Quickly stir a small amount of hot mixture into the egg yolks; then pour that mixture back into sauce pan. Return to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add coconut and pecans. Cool to spreading consistency, stirring occasionally.
*Cookbooks tell you to frost between the layers and on the top of a German chocolate cake, but not on its sides. Mom always frosted the sides (it’s a little tricky) to keep the cake moist.
