Coconut-Pecan Frosting

I grew up with my grandma making this frosting. In fact, I don't think I even realized that you could buy it in the store until I was an adult. The first Valentines Day after my husband and I were married I made german chocolate cake shaped in a heart with this homemade frosting for him. It quickly became a tradition and I have done it every year since. He also requests it for birthdays quite frequently. It really isn't hard at all to make and doesn't take long. The hardest part in our house is keeping everyone out if it for long enough to make it on the cake!

In case you didn't know, to make a heart shaped cake without a special pan, just bake your cake in a 9x9 inch square pan and a round one. After the cake is cooled, just turn your square cake on a diagonal and cut your round cake in half, making two half-circles. Place those against two sides of your square cake to make your heart.

Marie

1 cup granulated sugar or packed brown sugar (I use brown sugar)

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup evaporated milk

1 tsp vanilla

3 large egg yolks

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

In a 2 quart saucepan, stir sugar, butter, milk,vanilla and egg yolks until well mixed. Cook over medium heat for about 12 minutes until thick and bubbly.

Stir in coconut and pecans. Cool about 3o min, beating occasionally with a spoon.

From the Betty Crocker Cookbook

Ignore the messy chocolate frosting job. My 5-year olds wanted chocolate frosting on the sides of the cake since they don't like the german chocolate frosting and wanted to do it by themselves. I didn't realize how bad it looked until I uploaded the pictures!