These German Chocolate Cupcakes have a light, fluffy chocolate cake, are filled with a German chocolate ganache and are topped with a generous amount of the traditional cooked coconut topping.
Preheat oven to 350°. Line 24 standard muffin tins with double cupcake liners.
Separate your egg yolks from your egg whites. It is easiest to separate them when they are cold, but egg whites beat up better when they are room temperature, so I like to separate them immediately and then let them sit out to warm up.
Melt chocolate in ½ cup boiling water. Set aside to cool.
Sift together in a medium bowl the flour, salt, and baking soda.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time; beating well after each addition.
Add the melted chocolate and the vanilla; mix until incorporated.
Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the chocolate mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Beat until batter is smooth.
In a separate bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold gently into batter just until incorporated. Scoop into prepared muffin tins. Each cup should be about ¾ full.
Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few clinging crumbs; 20-30 minutes. I would start checking about 15 because you do not want to overbake them!
Let cool 5 minutes in the tins and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
To prepare the frosting:
While the cakes cool, prepare the frosting and ganache.
Combine evaporated milk, sugar, yolks, butter and vanilla in a saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 12 minutes. Stir continuously!
Transfer to a large, heatproof bowl and then stir in the pecans and coconut. Beat until frosting is cool and thick enough to spread. Makes about 2 2/3 cups.
To prepare the ganache:
Bring whipping cream to a boil in a saucepan on the stove over medium heat or in the microwave.
Pour cream over chocolate and whisk until smooth.
Add the butter and continue to whisk until smooth and glossy. You don’t want to whisk too much or too vigorously because it will actually whip air into the ganache and we want a nice, thick filling!
Let cool until it is easy to scoop into the cupcakes.
To assemble the cupcakes:
Cut a hole in the center of each cupcake, not too deep because you want to preserve as much cake as possible!
Fill each hole with ganache. I used a spoon but you could also put it into a piping bag to easily fill.
Spread some frosting on each cupcake. It is sweet, so you don’t want to overpower the cake and ganache with too much topping!