I first made this cake for 'my friend Stephen' for his 38th Birthday. I say this with the confidence of having made the cake a hundred times, whereas I have only made it five times. I found the recipe in one of my favourite recipe books titled 'Cakes to Celebrate Love and Life' by Callie Maritz and Mari-Louis Guy. The cake is called a 'German Chocolate Cake', but is not German at all. The name comes from the chocolate brand (German's Sweet Chocolate) used by the housewife who created the recipe. It consists of three tiers of moist chocolate sponge sandwiched together with toasted pecan and coconut custard, and covered with a rich Chocolate Buttercream Icing. Stephen described his experience of eating this cake as 'a culinary orgasm'. That's pretty lofty praise for a cake. Thank you Stephen, and thank you Callie and Mari-Louis for such a seductive recipe.
