History of  German’s Chocolate Cake

Wouldn’t it be grand if a recipe were named after you? Beats a tombstone, I take it. 

For dessert, then, some German’s Chocolate Cake.

Note the apostrophe.

In the mid-1800s, Samuel “Sammy” German, an American of English descent and a chocolatier working for Baker’s Chocolate Company of Dorchester, Massachusetts, came up with a formula for a bar of sweet dark chocolate to be used solely in baking. It was called (and is so, to this day) Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate. Check the label next you’re at the store.

Baker’s is America’s oldest chocolate-making company, begun in 1790, now owned by the corporation Kraft Heinz.

The recipe for what we nearly always call “German Chocolate Cake” (no apostrophe) isn’t from Germany. It’s from a 1957 recipe by Mrs. George Clay in the Dallas Morning News that she called “German’s Chocolate Cake.” Because Sammy German is a proper name, Clay properly titled the recipe crediting his last name and using an apostrophe.

Somewhere along the line the apostrophe dropped, and generations of American cake eaters (and bakers) came to believe that the origins of the confection were from the country of Germany, not merely from a German, so to speak.

Like cake batter itself, it’s all mixed up. For example, in the 13th edition of the “Fanny Farmer Cookbook,” published in 1990, the recipe for “Sweet German Chocolate Cake” lists as the first required ingredient “4 ounces Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate.” In any case, both the mix and the mix-up are delicious.

Fanny Farmer Cookbook’s “German Sweet Chocolate Cake” recipe

More recipes on this site that include or use chocolate:
My Mom’s Chocolate Sauce
. . . and a Video on how to make it.
Gérald Koning’s Gluten-Free Cookies
Ohio Buckeyes Candy
Vegetarian (No Egg) Chocolate Chip Cookies