German Chocolate Cupcakes and Coconut Pecan Frosting

This weekend I experimented with a new type of icing for my friend's birthday party. To celebrate his German heritage, he and his friends hosted a German potluck and they asked me to bring some German chocolate cupcakes. (I learned during the making of said cake that German chocolate cake is, in fact, not at all German, but made it anyway.)

First I made the German-themed chocolate cupcake toppers. I thought German flags, pretzels and glasses of beer would be appropriate symbols of the country.

Remember that with a chocolate transfer, you have to do everything backwards from how you'd like it to appear on the cake. In this case, "Tom" appears correct because the letters "T" "O" and "M" happen to look the same forward and backward.

 I couldn't taste the cupcakes themselves, since they weren't gluten-free, but they looked moist and fluffy and I placed a pecan on top of each one.

While they cooled, I prepared the icing combining a couple of different recipes. It seems that coconut pecan frosting is very easy to adapt to anyone's preferences and the amounts do not have to be exact. I used recipes from Barbara Bakes and The Joy of Baking.

 It was simple to make and adjust. If you like coconut, add more. If you like pecans, add more. If you like butter, add more. Simple. I would suggest that if you are making cupcakes instead of a full German chocolate cake, that you chop the pecans a little smaller than the recipes recommend.

When the icing was cool, I spread it on.

And then added the German-themed chocolate toppers.

Happy birthday, Tom!