Small Batch German Chocolate Cake Frosting
Looking for the best coconut pecan frosting recipe without leftovers? Look no further than this Small Batch German Chocolate Cake Frosting made without evaporated milk! Makes enough to frost one 6 inch cake.
To say I love German chocolate desserts is probably an understatement.
As I was going through my recipes, I noticed I repeated the same small batch recipe for German chocolate frosting over and over again.
Rather than constantly repeating myself and having answers to questions all over the place, I decided to break it out into its own post as part of my small batch frosting mini series.
German chocolate frosting is a thick and creamy coconut pecan frosting. Typically you use it to frost German chocolate cake, but I’ve also used it as sandwich cookie filling.
Most recipes use canned evaporated milk, which unless you’re using the whole can at once, is annoying for small batch baking. I mean, what DO you do with the leftovers?
However, my recipe is different (and better, ahem) because I found a way to substitute for that with an easy pantry (er refrigerator?) ingredient.
I’m hoping you have this ingredient in your fridge too. If not, it’s easy to buy and easy to use up any leftovers you may have afterwards.
First, let’s talk about what exactly is German chocolate frosting. It’s a thick and creamy coconut pecan frosting that, despite its name, isn’t German. It’s actually named after the type of chocolate used in the cake, but I’ll talk about that more when I post the accompanying cake recipe.
Unlike buttercream frosting, you don’t pipe it. You spread it onto your cake or cupcake with an offset spatula.
In order to spread it, it has to be thick. Instead of beating in powdered sugar, German chocolate frosting is thickened by boiling together heavy cream, sugar, butter, and an egg yolk then cooling until a spreadable consistency.
Since you are using an egg yolk, here are recipes to use up leftover egg whites.
The frosting will take an hour to cool and thicken at room temperature, but if you’re in a hurry, here’s how to speed up the cooling time.
Spread the frosting in a thin layer onto a small cookie sheet or plate. This exposes more surface area for the heat to disperse, which means it’ll cool faster.
At this point, you can either refrigerate for 30 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes (but don’t let it freeze too long or you’ll have to let it thaw).
If your frosting does become too cold to use, let it sit out at room temperature for about 15 minutes or until soft enough to spread. Otherwise, you may tear up your cake.
Traditionally German chocolate frosting is made with canned evaporated milk. However, that’s not an item I normally keep in my pantry. But I found a way to make the coconut pecan frosting without evaporated milk.
To substitute for evaporated milk in coconut pecan frosting, use heavy whipping cream.
Evaporated milk is milk that has been boiled down to reduce, or evaporate, the water content (hence the name). This results in a slightly thicker milk than regular dairy milk.
Although heavy cream isn’t the same as evaporated milk, substituting it still achieves the same effect – a creamy thick frosting.
Don’t know what to do with the rest of your cream? Here are some recipes using leftover heavy cream.
Small batch frosting means one thing – you won’t have leftovers.
I don’t know about you, but I hate leftover frosting because all I do is store it in the fridge then throw it out two weeks later.
The yield for this frosting recipe will range depending on what you’re making:
- If you’re frosting cupcakes with an offset spatula, you can frost 1 dozen cupcakes because you typically don’t use as much as you would piping.
- If you’re frosting a 6 inch cake, you can frost the top with about a spoonful or two left over, depending on how thick you like it.
- If you’re frosting an 8 inch cake, you can still frost the top. Depending on how thick you like your frosting, you may or may not have some leftover.
- If you’re frosting a small two layer cake, you can frost the middle and top.
Cake Recipes For Your Small Batch Frosting
As much fun as it is to eat frosting with a spoon, chances are you need small cake recipes too. That’s why I wrote my 6 Inch Cake Recipes and Small Batch Cupcake Recipes guides.
German chocolate frosting is paired perfectly with my small German chocolate cake.
Want to make cupcakes? Use my Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes recipe then substitute German baking chocolate for semisweet.
More German Chocolate Recipes
For more frosting recipes, check out my small batch frosting recipes guide.
Small Batch German Chocolate Cake Frosting
Looking for the best coconut pecan frosting recipe without leftovers? Look no further than this Small Batch German Chocolate Cake Frosting made without evaporated milk!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream, room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into 2 pieces
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted
- 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cream, egg yolk, butter, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly as the butter melts.
- Once boiling, cook until the mixture thickens, about 1-2 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and stir in pecans, coconut, and vanilla. Cool for 1 hour or until cool and spreadable.
- To speed up the cooling process: Spread the frosting in a thin layer onto a small cookie sheet or plate. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes or until cool and spreadable.
Notes
- Use this frosting on my Small German Chocolate Cake and Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes.
- Enjoyed this recipe? Check out my full list of Small Batch Frosting Recipes, including chocolate, strawberry, and more.
- Need cake ideas? Check out my full list of Small Cake Recipes and Small Batch Cupcake Recipes.
- Want more? Check out my other German Chocolate recipes.
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What size cake is in the picture ? Would love to make this. It’s my father favorite cake. On his birthday like to have something he like even though he’s gone.It just good way to remember him
6 inch. I’m actually writing up the cake post today and will publish it later this week! That’s a very touching way to remember him. I love it.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for the small batch recipe. It was simple to follow and very delicious. I only had oat milk so I added a little cornstarch to the sugar. Also added a little brown sugar as I had unsweetened coconut.
Glad you were able to make this recipe work for you!
Can you make this 2-3 days ahead of time and just keep it in the fridge? Thanks!
Yes, you can. Bring it to room temperature for about 15-30 minutes so it warms up and becomes spreadable again.
This looks amazing! Do you toast the pecans yourself? If so, how do you recommend to do it?
Yes, you can toast them in a 350F oven for about 8-10 minutes or if it’s too hot out for the oven, you can fry them in a skillet with some butter.
Great, thank you!
Made this last night with the frosting! It is delicious.
Thanks for sharing
Oh wonderful! Glad you enjoyed it.
Cake and frosting were perfect size for my husband’s birthday since it was just the 2 of us. The cake was easy to make and very moist. I could just eat the frosting without the cake. Do you have other small cake recipes? Or ideas on how to ct down funk size batter to make smaller cakes?
Glad you loved the cake! And yes I have a list of all my 6 inch cakes: https://www.chocolatemoosey.com/2019/04/15/small-6-inch-cake-recipes-for-two/
Thank you so much for this recipe…I needed to frost a 9×13 pan cake so I did the following:
I didn’t have evaporated milk or heavy whipping cream so I used 1/3 cup of half and half. I added an extra egg yolk, one tablespoon of salted butter and 1/4 cup of light brown sugar.
I melted the butter first in the pan and then added the sugars, yolks, salt and half and half (I mixed those together before adding to the melted butter), and brought to a boil. I removed from heat and added a 7oz package of sweetened shredded coconut, vanilla, and 2/3 cup of nuts.
Perfect amount for the cake size I had.
Happy to hear you made this recipe work for your cake size.
I had am 8″ cake layer in the freezer leftover from Christmas – I had planned on making cake balls for my cookie platter but the pandemic lockdown changed everynes holiday plans. As much as I love a chocolate cake with chocoate frosting I wanted someting different – I went on a Pinterest search and found your recipe. I didn’t need a full batch since it’s just ane layer and this was the perfect amount….at least it would have been if I hadn’t gone to “test” it to make sure it was good lol. I was afraid it would take a long time to cook it but within 5 minutes from starting it was off the stove and coconut and pecans stirred in ready to cool down. I’ll have to check out your small cake recpes too – as a single girl with a horrendous sweet tooth I sure as heck don’t need the temptation of a full size cake calling me to eat it all lol.
Sorry about the typos….the print was so faint as I was typing it was hard to “proof read” lol
Yes, it doesn’t take long at all to cook. Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
If I was going to use the traditional evaporated milk, would it be the same amount as the heavy cream in your recipe? Would I still need the granulated sugar, or do you add that to sweeten the cream? I made the cake yesterday and am whipping up the frosting today for my grandma’s birthday! Thank you for such great recipes!
It’s the same amount. You would still need the sugar because evaporated milk isn’t sweet. Sounds like you’re thinking of sweetened condensed milk for that.
This was my father‘s favorite cake, in memory of him I plan on making cupcakes with your recipe. Can you please advise how long I should cook cupcakes using this recipe. Sincerely Brenda,
Cupcakes take about 18-20 minutes, depending on your oven.
I cannot wait to try the ice cream with this recipe. I did do a simple search also for what to do with leftover canned evaporated milk, and the lists are large. Now I know.
Enjoy! Let me know how it turns out.
Carla, I just want to commend you on your awesome recipes. I’ve made the 6-inch and it was very scrumptious. I do have one question for you. Do you have a German Chocolate cake recipe for an 8 or 9 inch cake. I’m not good at converting recipes to a larger sum.
No I don’t. The closest I have is my two layer devil’s food cake. You can swap in German chocolate and the coconut pecan frosting. Then you can decide if you want to keep it at two layers or cut in half for one layer: https://www.chocolatemoosey.com/devils-food-layer-cake-with-whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
Can you carnations milk if you do not have heavy cream?
As long as it’s evaporated milk and not sweetened condensed milk, yes.
I absolutely love this German chocolate frosting, of course the cake too! Delicious! It’s a tie between this frosting and your other coconut frosting recipe. Im glad to have this in a small batch since my husband doesn’t usually eat dessert.
Glad you’re enjoying both frosting recipes!