German Chocolate Cake

First, a little history for you, German Chocolate cake is not actually German in origin. It merely uses Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate, developed for Baker's by a man named Sam German. German Chocolate cake was developed in 1957 by a woman in Dallas Texas, and it quickly spread all over the nation. It became so popular, Baker's Chocolate sales went up 73% that year.

The recipe below claimed to be the original recipe, but I don't have a way to verify it.

I've had German chocolate cake, but after making this recipe... I can see why it was so popular. This is seriously one of the best cakes I've ever eaten. Everyone who had a slice agreed, even my grandfather who has eaten a lot of cakes in his day.

I made this cake with Softasilk flour (it's just white flour that's been sifted a bunch.) In a couple days I'm going to make it again and use regular All-Purpose flour to see if it made a difference.

Accessories:
3, 9" cake pans
wax paper - parchment paper will do
scissors
bowl
mixer (hand or otherwise)
sauce pan
spoonish thing

Extraordinary Ingredients:
sweetened condensed milk
Baker's German's sweet chocolate
buttermilk
7 eggs
pecans
coconut flakes

The Cake:

4 oz. Baker's German's sweet chocolate 1/2 cup Water, boiling	Melt chocolate in water and cool.
1 cup Butter or margarine 2 cup Sugar	Cream butter and Sugar.
4 Eggs, separated	Beat in egg yolks.
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract	Stir in vanilla and chocolate.
2 cups Flour, all-purpose 1 teaspoon Baking soda 1/2 teaspoon Salt 1 cup Buttermilk	Mix flour, soda and salt. beat in flour mixture, alternately with buttermilk.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; fold into batter. Pour batter into three 9-inch layer pans, lined on bottoms with waxed paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly pressed in center. Cool 15 minutes; remove and cool on rack. (If you are just eating the cake yourself among friends, forget the cooling part and eat it hot.)

The Filling:

1, 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk (Not Evaporated Milk) 1/2 C water 3 egg yolks	Cook the milk eggs and water over a double boiler until thickened. Cook it over direct heat if you watch and stir 100% of the time.
1 t vanilla 1/2 C butter (1 stick)	Then add the vanilla and butter and whisk in until it is melted and smooth.
1 1/3 C Pecans; chopped reserve 10 whole pecan halves for garnish. 1 3/4 C Angel flake coconut	Add the chopped pecans and coconut.

Assembly:
Divide the filling evenly between the 3 cakes putting the 1st layer down, Then spread the filling evenly. Repeat with the other layers.

If you decide to add chocolate frosting, only frost the edges, leave the top gooey with the Filling. You can garnish with pecan halves.