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.