Classic German Chocolate Cake vs Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce

Both desserts rely on butter, eggs, vanilla and baking soda, yet they put them to quite different work. The German chocolate cake builds cocoa-rich layers from buttermilk and oil, saving butter for a stovetop frosting thickened with evaporated milk and egg yolks, then loaded with shredded coconut and chopped pecans. The sticky toffee pudding soaks chopped dates in boiling water with the baking soda, creams butter with brown sugar for the batter, and is finished with a hot sauce of butter, brown sugar and double cream poured over the warm pudding. One is chocolatey and nutty; the other is deep with dates and toffee-like brown sugar.