German Chocolate Roll
Not German After All
Here’s the truth…I had no good reason to choose a German chocolate cake roll for this week other than portability. No lesson in mind. No occasion. But it’s tailgating season, and I needed a cake that could survive a mile walk dodging football fans.
I guess I could lie and say it was for Oktoberfest—German, right? Fun fact: a German chocolate cake does not hail from Germany. What? You ask? That’s right. I didn’t realize this until my favorite brewery (Contrary Brewing in Muscatine, IA—look them up!) came out with a brew called German’s Chocolate Cake, and I wondered why it had an “apostrophe s”. Brewers hold all the wisdom.
So, if you’re unenlightened, like I was, the cake was originally called German’s Chocolate Cake after Sam German and his sweet baking chocolate used in the original confection. In the recipe’s description, Julie Richardson, author of Vintage Cakes, shares this history lesson. At some point, the “apostrophe s” dropped off.
The Rule of Three
The German Chocolate Roll has three elements—the cake, the nutty filling, and the frosting—a little different from the original. To me, that’s the sweet spot (pun intended)—when a cake is more than just cake and frosting.
I’m a sucker for a homemade custard, and I’ll tell you I was pretty excited that the filling was exactly that—mixed with the coconut and toasted pecans you’d expect. The frosting that covered the entire roll was velvety-smooth chocolate ganache.
In full disclosure, I don’t even like German chocolate cake that much. In my opinion, the typical frosting—laden with sugar and not creamy—isn’t a custard. In this recipe, the custard was made with heavy cream, which gave it more body and richness than the sticky-sweet frosting that usually covers the cake.
What’s Missing Makes It Special
Here’s a surprise—the ingredient that made this cake truly special was actually the lack of something. This was a flourless cake. Just looking at the recipe, it seemed so wrong. If you didn’t know better, you might think it was a mistake. But the key to making it work was technique (and eggs).
The two ingredients I adore that are in the recipe were chopped bittersweet chocolate and leftover brewed coffee. Coffee enhances chocolate, and don’t we love a deep chocolate profile? Call me the Cocoa Connoisseur.
Consistently Amazing in Every Bite
In the end, this dark, rich, cocoa-y cake was light as air, but sturdy enough to hold the chunky filling and stand up to a day of tailgating. And I think it may be one of my favorites from this collection of vintage recipes.
One thing I love about a cake roll is that there’s a bit of everything in each bite. In this case, each forkful offered melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake, nutty custard filling, and smooth, dark chocolate ganache. For someone with OCD around the number three and who needs a perfectly balanced plate, getting a little cake, frosting, and filling in every bite felt like magic.
A Metamorphosis—The Transcend Moment
The past several weeks have been a challenge…an unfamiliar, unrelenting, at times, downright soul-sucking challenge. In that regard, this cake roll felt somewhat symbolic. At first, I felt raw, broken, like I just wanted to be rolled up in a cocoon—avoid interaction, shut out the noise. Everything was too much.
Peopling—I didn’t want to talk or even be seen.
Work—so far behind, but operating on autopilot.
Doing anything I’d normally enjoy—who’s got time OR energy for that?
But then the little voice came. The voice of reason. The voice that KNOWS better. And so she made me go to the gym. She made me get together with friends. She made me go on the date with my husband. She made me push forward.
Mentally, I was still rolled up in the cocoon, but I made myself do the “life things”. The cocoon provides a safe place to shelter, but it’s not meant to enclose you indefinitely. It’s there to hold and protect you while you do the hard things.
Nature informs us that transformative work happens in the cocoon. How do we know? Because what emerges is changed—it’s different from what went in. An extraordinary metamorphosis occurs in the cocoon.
In life, the hard things transform us most profoundly. When we unroll and emerge from the hardest cocoons, we continue life wiser and more resilient than before.