German Chocolate Cake! A popular fine rich chocolate cake in USA with its famed dual ingredients – Coconut & Pecan. Going by the name, you would have believed that this cake was created by Germans. Isn’t it? Well, at least I always thought as German cooks are renowned for using extravagant ingredients in their exotic recipes hence presenting a rich dining experience. But on my surprise, NO! It has nothing to do with the Germans, in fact its been developed in USA. Then why is it called German? 

Well, here is the story –

In 1852, Samuel German, an English-American chocolate maker developed a formulation of sweet mild dark baking chocolate bar for Baker’s Chocolate Company. The product was so fine that it was named in honor of him – Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate.

It was only in 1957, that a recipe for ‘German’s Chocolate Cake’ appeared as the ‘Recipe of the Day’ in The Dallas Morning News. It was created by Mrs. George Clay, a homemaker from Dallas, Texas using the ingredient – Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate.

The cake quickly gained popularity and its delectable recipe with photos were spread all over the country by General Foods which owned the Baker’s Brand at that time. And can you imagine the sales of Baker’s Chocolate are said to have increased by as much as 73%. In matter of no time, German(‘s) Chocolate cake was baked in many American homes, cafes and restaurants. The recipe still remains popular to this day and has been adopted by baking companies.

In most recipes and products today, the apostrophe and the ‘s’ have been dropped, driving the assumption that the chocolate’s origins are German.

June 11 is National German Chocolate Cake Day in America.