German Chocolate anyone?

Every year at work we pull someones name out of a "hat" and then we put together all the things for their birthday (cake, card, flowers). This year I pulled Karen's name out of the hat. Karen's favorite kind of cake just so happens to be German Chocolate. If you've ever had a homemade German Chocolate cake you will know that the ones they sell in the store are not an acceptable substitute. I've never really been a huge fan of coconut, but this cake made me forget that all together; kind of like those girl scout cookies with the coconut, they are my favorite!

Here is the link to the recipe I followed:
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2005/09/german_chocolat_1.html

So, I don't recall ever having made a cake from scratch, they have these ones that come in a box that are way easier nowadays, and they don't create nearly as many dirty dishes. But, I must say this cake was certainly worth the effort and might just have me rethinking the whole boxed cake thing. The fact that the recipe looked like it had so many steps didn't really bother me, I've always been pretty good about following directions, it's when I have to improvise that recipes go wrong, hence I'm much better at baking then cooking. It was a long night but well worth it, here are my posts from facebook while baking the cake (did I forget to mention I made this cake on the hottest day ever recorded in Seattle). Notice the time I started and finished this thing... yikes!

Amy Davis is toasting coconut and pecans... it's way to hot for this... July 29 at 6:34pm

Amy Davis isn't sure how to make things "room temperature"... everything is just hot... the temp in my kitchen is 88.8 degrees.... not exactly room temperature for baking. July 29 at 7:25pm ·

Amy Davis has all the pieces to the cake done... now for them to cool down so I can put it all together. :) July 29 at 10:03pm ·

Amy Davis doesn't think the icing will ever be room temperature enough to ice with... ugh. I put it in the fridge, hopefully that'll help... now I have to figure out how to put the cake in the fridge. July 30 at 1:13am ·

Amy Davis Lets hope it tastes good... but it was so worth making on the hottest day EVER in Seattle. :) July 30 at 1:30am ·

P.S. This cake tasted amazing! There wasn't a piece left at the end of the day other then the two Karen was taking home. Long story short, if you like German Chocolate cake or if you know someone that does; make this cake, it's amazing!