Grandma’s German Chocolate Cake Mess Ups

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Spoiler alert: Grandma was mistaken when she said these were mess ups! I mean how can anything with a German chocolate cake mix, homemade caramel, and chocolate chips be considered a mess up? Trust me when I tell you, they certainly don’t taste like a mess up.

The Backstory

My husband introduced me to these heavenly little German chocolate cookies, German chocolate brownies, German chocolate cake bites (I’m not exactly sure what they technically are, but when something tastes this good, does it even really matter?) about 20 years ago. He grew up showing sheep in 4-H, and every summer, his grandma would bake these and bring them to all the boys in the barns at the fairgrounds. Initially, his grandma set out to make another recipe, but she did something wrong (no one knows exactly what), and she made these instead. When she took them to the barns, she told the boys she hoped they liked them since she messed up her initial recipe. And man, did those boys ever like these! In fact, they made such a gigantic fuss over them, that my husband’s grandma would make them every single summer after and personally deliver them to the fairgrounds. The boys will tell you that they’re best served cold with a glass of milk because they kept them in their mini refrigerators inside the barns so the chocolate didn’t melt in the heat. But if you truly want to know, I guess you’ll have to try them out yourself.

What You’ll Need

• One box German chocolate cake mix
• One package of caramels
• One can of evaporated milk
• Cooking spray
• All purpose flour
• Chocolate chips
• Butter

What To Do

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Pour the cake mix into a bowl.

2. Melt 1 1/2 sticks of butter.

3. Add 1 cup of flour to your cake mix.

4. Add 1/3 cup evaporated milk to your cake mix.

5. Add your melted butter to the cake mix. Stir it all together. No, you do not follow the directions on the cake box. This was so weird for me, but trust me.

6. Grease a 9×13 pan.

7. Spread half of the mixture into the bottom of your 9X13 pan. I take my fingers and pat this out like you would pizza dough.

8. Bake for 6 minutes at 350 degrees.

9. Line a 9×13 sheet pan with wax paper.

10. Pat the other remaining half of the dough out onto the sheet of waxed paper. Then stick in the freezer until you’re ready for it. Trust me on this, if you don’t, you will go insane trying to get the top half of this dough on.

11. While your cake bakes, elicit some help to remove the wrappers from the caramels. Place them in a pan on your stove.

12. Stir in 1/2 cup of evaporated milk. Cook on low, stirring constantly until caramels melt and you have a beautiful caramel sauce. Then remove from the heat. Try not to eat the entire pot of caramel sauce. 🙂

13. Remove the cake from the oven when time is up. Sprinkle your chocolate chips over the warm cake.

14. Then drizzle the caramel sauce over the chocolate chips. I always use a knife to spread it out once I’m done drizzling so that everything is coated in yummy homemade caramel. It’s okay, you can lick the pan when you’re done. I won’t tell.

15. Remove the frozen cake batter from the freezer. Quickly place it on top of your caramel chocolate mixture.

16. Bake for 18 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool, then cut into 1 inch squares. Of course, that is how Grandma cut them. We tend to cut them bigger around here. But we aren’t feeding a bunch of hungry teenage boys…yet.

A few years ago, my husband worked with some of those same men that he showed sheep with back when they were boys. After Grandma died, no one made this recipe anymore. I stumbled upon it one day while cleaning, and I decided to surprise all of these guys with Grandma’s mess ups. They were still as big a hit now as they were back then. For a long time, whenever my husband would talk about how low morale was getting at work, I would bake a batch of these and send them in to work with my husband for the guys to enjoy. I like to think they helped cheer everyone up a little bit. Thanks Grandma!

German Chocolate Bars

German chocolate cake mix, caramel, and chocolate chips make for a delicious dessert bar

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 23 minutes mins

Total Time 38 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Calories 565 kcal

Ingredients

  

• 1 package German Chocolate Cake Mix
• ⅓ cup evaporated milk
• ½ cup evaporated milk
• ¾ cup melted butter
• 1 14 oz. package Kraft caramels
• 1 11 ½ oz. package chocolate chips
• 1 cup all purpose flour

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Pour cake mix into a large bowl.
• Add 1 cup of flour to the cake mix.
• Add ⅓ cup of evaporated milk to the cake mix.
• Melt ¾ cup butter.
• Add melted butter to cake mix.
• Mix together.
• Grease a 9×13 pan.
• Press ½ of cake mixture into greased 9×13 pan.
• Bake for 6 minutes at 350°.
• Line a 9×13 pan with wax paper.
• Press remaining ½ of cake mixture into 9×13 pan.
• Stick in the freezer.
• Unwrap caramels.
• Put caramels into a sauce pan on the stove.
• Add ½ cup evaporated milk into pan with caramels.
• Melt caramels over low heat, stirring constantly.
• After removing cake from oven, sprinkle 1 bag of chocolate chips over the top of the warm cake.
• Drizzle with caramel mixture. Then use a knife to spread caramel mixture all over cake.
• Remove cake mixture from freezer and place on top of the caramel chocolate mixture.
• Bake for 18 minutes at 350°.
• When cool, cut into 1 inch squares.

Notes

You can decide if you want to use salted butter, unsalted butter, or even margarine. Grandma made hers with margarine, and they turned out fine. I don’t use margarine. I use salted stick butter. 

Keyword German chocolate

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