Dad's German chocolate coconut pecan cake

I love quick & easy treats! Remember this recipe when I made boxed brownies and simply added my favorite Ikea Lingonberry jam on top and made magic? OK, well, magic in my book anyway.

One of my favorite fun cake cook books is The Cake Doctor, by Ann Byrn. It's a fun book that is the epitome of simplicity & ease. Every recipe begins with a cake mix and then the author "tweaks" the batter by adding extra yummies to bump it up a notch. My kind of baking! I have made several cakes with this book and my family loves it when I pull it off the shelf. They know good things are about to happen.  :o)

On my recent trip to Texas my Dad totally surprised me by making a "Cake Doctor" type bundt cake as a little something special to go with the grilled chicken dinner he fixed that night. It was so delicious, moist and, get this ~ there was only one add in! 

Now please be patient with me....I'm not a food blogger although it would be my dream...Seriously, if I could blog and photograph food I would be a very happy lady. I love photos of food. I can look at cookbooks and cooking magazines all day. Halleluja!

I did my best here, sometimes using only one hand so half of my pics are out of focus and don't get me started on how much chocolate cake batter I got on the back of my camera....I need a food blogger for dummies class.

All you'll need is Betty Crocker German chocolate cake mix & coconut pecan frosting.

Make exactly according to the package directions.

Easy peasy so far, right? Told you.

Now take a second, as I did, to taste a teensy bit of the batter. No one's looking.



Now get that can of coconut pecan icing.....

And spoon the whole thing into the batter and mix it well.

This time, go ahead, take the beaters off and lick them. Because now there are little pieces of pecan and coconut in the batter, it's heavenly.



Spray your bundt pan well with some nonstick spray and pour in your batter. Put the cake pan in the oven at 350 degrees for 39-42 minutes.

Or until the cake begins to pull away from the pan like this.

After about 40 minutes look at what you get!

A big, giant, brown, hideous blob.

But that's OK!

Because when you let the cake cool for a little bit then flip it over ~ VOILA!

Can you see the pecans that were added from the icing? Yum.

Now Dad's cake was delish, but I went one step further and added a light glaze to the top.

I love the taste of chocolate and coffee (mocha) so I found a packet of instant coffee (about 1 Tbsp.) and added it to 1 cup of confectioners sugar.

Now let's pretend that I added 2-3 Tbsp of milk to the instant coffee first to dissolve the crystals instead of doing what I did ~ NOT dissolving the crystals first, but oh well. You live, you learn.

Mix in enough milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, to make a smooth glaze.

Dang I wish I'd have dissolved those crystals! Now I'm going to be haunted by this forever. Or until the cake is gone. So, until tomorrow night, Ugh!

Drizzle.......

Oh yeah, now that's what I'm talking about. And there's nothing to it!

Without a glaze, it makes a delicious coffee cake. Make it for your friends next time they come over. I can't wait until Johnny sees it. He's going to be excited.

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UPDATE:

So Johnny's eyes buldged out of his head when he walked into the kitchen after work and saw the cake, and he started singing songs in my praise. It was so touching and sweet.

OK, maybe not.

After we sliced the cake I grabbed my camera to grab a quick pic of the inside and...I don't know what to say...every time this man gets his hands on any kind of dessert he goes a little koo-koo. And the more koo-koo he gets, the more pictures of him I take!  :o)

Needless to say HE LIKED IT and he wanted more! Johnny loves coconut, Mmmm....



Thanks for the recipe, Dad! Simple, easy, delicious and moist ~ the perfect cake. Johnny says "It's a keeper."