Celebrating the not so German Chocolate

One of the things that I really like about food, is that it is a subject area where you can always keep learning, keep tasting, and keep celebrating.

This year marks the 66th anniversary of the German Chocolate Cake. While this cake has a loyal following around the world, and is distinctively flavorful with its chocolate, coconut and pecans, this cake is definitely not from Germany. Pecans are not typically in the German diet, as the pecan tree is indigenous to the North America, specifically in the American South and Mexico.

The name of this cake comes from an American (or perhaps English depending on what you read) baker Samuel German.  In 1852, while working for Bakers Chocolate Company, he invented a style of sweet baking chocolate and the company named it after him, but German's Chocolate didn't become well known until 1957.

That’s when The Dallas Morning Newspaper received a recipe submission from a Texas baker using a Texas loved nut, the pecan. The recipe was so popular that Bakers German's Chocolate sales shot up to 73 percent. Other newspapers across the country reprinted the recipe and somewhere along the way, German's Chocolate Cake lost its apostrophe-S, and the confusion of Germany (the county) started being held responsible for the American (or English) Samuel German’s sweet chocolate invention.

Happy 66th Anniversary German’s Chocolate Cake!