When: June 11
German chocolate cake was named after Sam German, an American baker who developed a sweet baking chocolate for Baker's Chocolate Company in 1852. The cake itself was invented in Texas in 1957 by a home baker named Mrs. George Clay. It's specifically American, deeply delicious, and built on one of the best frostings in the pastry canon.
German chocolate cake has nothing to do with Germany — and the real story is better.
German chocolate cake is not German. It is named after Sam German — born in England, emigrated to the United States — who developed "German's Sweet Chocolate" for the Walter Baker & Company of Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1852. The chocolate was named for its creator, a mild-sweet formulation designed for home baking, and it sat relatively quietly in grocery stores for over a century. In June 1957, a homemaker from Dallas named Mrs. George Clay submitted a recipe for "German's Chocolate Cake" to the Dallas Morning Star. The newspaper published it. Readers loved it. General Foods, which had acquired Baker's Chocolate company, recognized what they had and distributed the recipe nationally to newspapers across the country. The recipe appeared simultaneously in food sections from coast to coast and demand for German's Sweet Chocolate immediately increased. Somewhere in the passage from Mrs. Clay's submission to national distribution, the apostrophe-s disappeared. "German's Chocolate Cake"...