Kara and I made these German Chocolate Cake Brownies a couple weeks ago for a very special reason. Our Mom!!! It was her birthday and we were trying to recreate one of her childhood memories. Aren’t we sweet daughters? 🙂
My Mom always talks about how my Grandma made the best cakes…not just baking but decorating too. And for every birthday (there were a lot with 9 kids) my Grandma baked a German Chocolate Cake. I wish we could get our hands on her recipe but unfortunately we don’t have it. For my Mom’s birthday, Kara and I stuck with her favorite, German Chocolate, but we went with a brownie version instead.
We used a box mix for the brownies. I know this sounds like cheating, however, we knew from plenty of taste testing experience that Ghiradelli brownies were our favorite so why not make life easy? The end results were decadent and fantastic. My Mom was so impressed!

German Chocolate Cake Brownies
Ingredients
- 2 egg yolks
- 6 oz evaporated milk
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 6 tbsp butter, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 1/3 cup coconut
- 3/4 cup pecans, chopped
- 8×8 pan of your favorite brownies (we used Ghiradelli)
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, combine egg yolks, evaporated milk and brown sugar.
- Cube the butter and add it in pieces.
- Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thick, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in vanilla, salt, coconut and pecans.
- Let cool completely, frosting will thicken.
- Once cooled, spread over an 8×8 pan of your favorite brownies. We used a boxed Ghiradelli mix.