National German Chocolate Cake Day
If you’ve ever assumed German Chocolate Cake hailed from the Black Forest or some tiny bakery in Bavaria, you’re not alone. But the truth is this beloved dessert has its roots not in Germany—but right here in the United States.
The name “German” doesn’t refer to the country—it actually refers to Samuel German, an English-American chocolatier who worked for the Baker’s Chocolate Company in the 1850s. He developed a new type of sweetened dark baking chocolate that made baking more convenient and flavorful. It was eventually named “Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate.”
Fast forward to 1957, when a Texas homemaker sent a recipe to a Dallas newspaper for a decadent chocolate cake using that very chocolate. The cake featured layers of rich chocolate sponge, filled and topped with a buttery coconut-pecan frosting—instantly catching fire in kitchens across America.
The recipe was titled “German’s Chocolate Cake”—but over time, the possessive apostrophe was dropped, leaving us with the more internationally mysterious “German Chocolate Cake.”