German Chocolate Cake with Coconut-Pecan Sauce

Despite the title you’ve just read, I’d like to talk about ricotta cheesecake for a minute. One of my favorite places to eat in New York is Becco, and that is mostly because of their ricotta cheesecake. When Quinn asked what I wanted for dessert on my recent birthday, I really wanted to try to duplicate it. After a quite thorough search of the web, my cookbooks, and the bookstore’s cookbooks, I never found a recipe that seemed quite right. So, we dove in and made one anyway. It was not good. At all.
That’s how we ended up with this German chocolate cake for my little birthday celebration. Quinn did most of the work on my behalf, but I couldn’t resist helping out. He whipped up the cake, and I made the sauce.
This kind of cake is one of my very favorites. Coconut and pecans are two of my favorite things, and to have them combined together on top of chocolate cake… Well, how can you go wrong? I’ll tell you how. Not everyone likes coconut and pecans. With some encouragement from my dear friend Tonya (thanks, by the way), I came up with a solution in the form of this recipe from Southern Living.
The coconut-pecan component is a sauce that can be ladled onto the cake when it’s served. So, in deference to the non-coconut-ers and non-pecan-ers, there were alternative toppings. Quinn made some kind of caramel sauce. Honestly, I wasn’t in the kitchen at the time, and I have no idea how he did that. I also made one of my stand-by sauces, a white chocolate-raspberry sauce that’s shown up on this little blog before.
The result? I got the cake I wanted for my birthday (if we’re not counting my initial quest for the ricotta cheesecake), and everyone else got something they liked, too.
By the way, if anyone has recommendations for a ricotta cheesecake recipe (preferably like the one at Becco), I would love to hear about them.
German Chocolate Cake with Coconut-Pecan Sauce

Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup (75g) unsalted butter
- 4 ounces (113g) sweet baking chocolate, chopped (either German's or semisweet)
- 1 & 1/4 cups (250g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (118ml) water
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large egg whites
- 1 large egg
For the sauce:
- 1 & 1/2 cups (250g) granulated sugar
- 2 & 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 12 ounces (340g) evaporated milk
- 3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup (40g) chopped pecans
- 1/4 cup (21g) flaked sweetened coconut
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
To make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9"x 13" baking pan.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Place the butter and chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in the microwave at half-power in 30-second increments until the butter has melted and the chocolate melts when stirred. Stir until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Combine the sugar, water, and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Whisk in the egg whites and the egg.
- Add the flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.
To make the sauce:
- Place the sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Whisk in the milk. Add the butter.
- Cook over medium heat until the mixture boils. Continue cooking for 1 minute.
- Remove from the heat. Stir in the pecans, coconut, and vanilla. Serve warm over slices of cake.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Southern Living and MyRecipes.
Recommended Products
Bake or Break is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
20 Comments on “German Chocolate Cake with Coconut-Pecan Sauce”
I love this idea! German Chocolate cake is one of my favorites, but my husband doesn’t like the coconut-pecan sauce. now we can both have our cake and eat it too!
I can’t wait to see the concoctions that you and T dream up when you guys finally make the MS to RTP transition!
Can I claim my kaluha topping now?
Mmmm, german chocolate cake is sooo good…yours looks fantastic.
“Don’t be shy little cake. Come out and see us all.”
I like how the cake is peering over the plate..
I taste this cake when I was in Berlin two months ago, it’s so delicious!
Pingback: Coconut Pecan Shortbread Squares
Pingback: German Chocolate Cheesecake | Bake or Break
Pingback: German Chocolate Cheesecake | That's Cooking!
Pingback: German Chocolate Cheesecake | fixcookies.com
Pingback: Butter Pecan Cake | Baking Secrets
Pingback: Black-Bottom Coconut Bars | Pet Secrets | Cats
Pingback: Double Nut Drenched Chocolate Cake | fixcookies.com
Pingback: German Chocolate Cake Cookies | Bake or Break | Chocolate
I just signed up and saw the German chocolate with coconut pecan sauce, and I’m new to this so could you tell me how I can pull the recipe up?Thank you…
Hi, Linda. Welcome! There is a link to the original recipe in the post. I have also added it to this page now.
Pingback: "he has a good point"
How could I make this recipe vegan?
Hi, Tina. I don’t have any experience with vegan baking, so I’m afraid I can’t help with that.
This is perfect – I was mentally debating the same situation you described – that is some non coconut and non pecan lovers. This is an amazing solution!! Thank you so much. Do you think this cak could be made in a bundt pan or is that not enough batter?
Hi, Adele. It’s not enough batter to fill a standard 10- or 12-cup Bundt pan. You can still bake it in one of those pans, but it just won’t fill it all the way.