Jessica's Cookery: David Lebovitz's German Chocolate Cake

I decided to do a trial run of this german chocolate cake recipe I found. I want to make one for a friend's birthday in a couple weeks, but I've never made a regular cake from scratch before, only cheesecakes. And what a one for a first!! I searched the web for german chocolate cake recipes, and this one looked good: David Lebovitz's German Chocolate Cake. It is very involved, with many ingredients, but I picked this one because it used only 2 cake pans instead of 3 like so many of the others. And so many steps for things to go wrong....baking is first and foremost a SCIENCE!! Well, my first attempt turned out okay....it tasted good, and the cake itself was decent....but the icing...was way way way too liquidy. I was supposed to be able to pipe a border around the top of the cake AND spread it around the side. Didn't work out. I just kinda slathered some on....it didn't look awesome, but hey, it's the taste that counts right?!

Ingredients:
~Cake~
2 oz bittersweet/semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
6 tbsp water
8 oz unsalted butter (room temp or softened)
1 1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs, yolk & whites separated
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soad
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter milk (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
~Filling~
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
3 oz butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pecans, toasted, finely choppe
1 1/3 cups unsweetened coconut, toasted
~Syrup~
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 tblsp dark rum
~Icing~
8 oz bittsweet/semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1 1/2 oz unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream

Cake
Step 1: Butter two 9-inch cake pans; line bottoms with rounds of parchment or wax paper. Preheat oven to 350F.
Step 2: Melt both types of chocolate together with the water. Stir until smooth, then set aside until room temperature.
Step 3: Beat butter and 1 1/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy.
Step 4: Beat in melted chocolate, then egg yolks, one at a time [I forgot and added all the yolks at the same time].
Step 5: Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. [I didn't sift, just mixed the dry ingredients together].
Step 6: Mix in half the dry ingredients into the chocolate butter mixture, then the buttermilk, and the vanilla extract, then the rest of the dry ingredients. [Note: I forgot to get buttermilk at the store, so instead of going back, I found a quick and easy recipe for buttermilk substitute: measure 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar then add enough milk to equal 1 cup of liquid total - let sit for 5 minutes]
Step 7: In separate bowl, beat egg whites until they hold soft, droopy peaks.
Step 8: Beat in 1/4 cup of sugar into egg whites until stiff.
Step 9: Fold about 1/3 of egg white mixture into cake batter, then fold remaining whites just until there's no trace of egg white visible.
Step 10: Divide batter into the 2 cake pans, smooth tops, bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
Step 11: Cool cake layers completely.

While cakes are baking/cooling, make the filling, syrup, and icing.

Filling
Step 1: Mix cream, sugar, and egg yolks in medium saucepan. Put the 3 oz butter, salt, toasted coconut, and pecan pieces in a large bowl. [Note: I couldn't find unsweetend coconut flaked/shavings, so I bought the sweetened kind and toasted them in a pan. I also toasted the pecan pieces in the pan.]
Step 2: Heat cream mixture and cook, stirring constantly until mixture begins to thicken.
Step 3: Pour hot cream mixture (custard) into pecan-coconut mixture and stir until butter is melted.
Step 4: Cool to room temperature.

Syrup
Step 1: In small saucepan, heat sugar and water until sugar has melted.
Step 2: Remove from heat and stir in dark rum.

Icing
Step 1: Place chocolate into a bowl with corn syrup and butter.
Step 2: Heat cream until just begins to boil.
Step 3: Remove cream from heat and pour over chocolate mixture. Let stand 1 minute, then stir until smooth.
Step 4: Cool to room temperature.

Assembly
Step 1: Remove cakes from pans and cut both in half horizontally.
Step 2: Set first cake layer onto a cake plate.
Step 3: Brush well with syrup.
Step 4: Spread 3/4 cup of coconut filling over the cake layer, making sure to reach the edges.
Step 5: Set another cake layer on top.
Step 6: Repeat steps 3-5 until all layers used up, ending with spreading filling on top layer.
Step 7: Ice the side with icing, then pipe a border around the top. Use all icing.

Total time: 2 hours 25 minutes

Like I mentioned above, the cake tastes good, but definitely doesn't look at the spectacular. And considering the icing recipe isn't complicated...I wonder what happened. I wonder if I used the wrong type of cream? Possibly.... I also noticed I didn't have enough filling to use 3/4 cup per layer AND for the top. Making a little more filling would be better. I'm going to find another recipe and try it out in the next couple weeks. Man, did this recipe generate a lot of dishes....