Germans.

So, today I had to fill an order for a woman who works at the insurance company we used to work for. She wanted german chocolate cupcakes with a caramel coconut filling and topped with chocolate frosting. I've never made german chocolate cake before, but I found a reliable recipe and started on it this morning. (I always do the cakes in the morning that way if they dont turn out right I have some time to try to fix it or re-d0.) I was really nervous while they baked because I had this fear of them sinking in the middle. That happened to me once before when I was making an order...they totally sunk in like a serious sink hole. I had to re-make another batch and use a new recipe!

Anyway, this recipe was crazy busy... it called for like egg yolks, egg whites (that I had to beat to form stiff peaks and then gently fold in at the end)... and the instructions were shady about the German chocolate at the beginning... it said to heat 1/2 cup of water & the german chocolate together until it melts & then let cool. Well, I've always heard you can't add water to chocolate because it jacks the chocolate ALL up. So, to be safe, I did a double boiler and just melted the chocolate alone and added it to the batter. In the end, I did end up adding the 1/2 cup of water, so I guess next time I will melt the water & chocolate together... they will be in a big, hot pot of love together. Opposites attract? I guess so in this instance.

I was praying through the whole baking process that they wouldn't sink because the ingredients were NOT cheap. Here they are coming out of the oven. . . .

<- no sinking! Yay!

Then I started to make the filling. I had to let it cool before I could fill these bad boys, but I realized really quickly that my fill tip wouldn't work; the coconut would totally clog the tip. I thought I was outsmarting it when I decided to use a regular frosting tip that was really big & round (the biggest I had), but alas, epic fail. I was starting to get kinda panicky about the whole thing, but I ended up using a cannoli tube to hollow out the centers of the cupcakes & then filled them with the stuff using a spoon. It took me a while since I was doing it manually but <- Caramelish Coconut Filling

whatever... it worked!

Afterward, I piped on some chocolate buttercream that I made for it the day before & topped them with some toasted coconut. She didn't ask for the topping but since it's a German chocolate cupcake (coconutty!) I thought it was appropriate. ;P I taste tested one (or two...don't judge me) and I thought they were quite yum.

Ze end product. . . . (drum roll)