Box O Chocolates - German Chocolate Cakes

German Chocolate Cakes

By now you've probably read that German chocolate cakes didn't originate in Germany. It can be argued that German chocolate is a form of European chocolate, but German chocolate is a type of chocolate used in making German chocolate cake.

History

Sam German is the person responsible for creating German chocolate. It's not a gourmet chocolate, but instead more of a baking chocolate. After all, he worked for Baker's Chocolate Co. when he created it.

Anyhow, most German chocolate cakes are just chocolate-buttermilk chocolate cake that use German chocolate instead of other types of chocolate. Since these kinds of cakes have always been popular in the south, and pecans were always plentiful too. It's up for debate as to whether this Dallas housewife who submitted the recipe to for German chocolate cake to a Dallas newspaper was the original creator of the recipe or not. In any case, her submittal caused sales of Baker's German chocolate to spike, and German chocolate cakes became all the rage. People who missed the recipe when it was published would ask the newspaper to reprint it.

Today, people make German chocolate cakes, German chocolate cheesecakes, even German chocolate pie! (Check out our recipe for German chocolate pie on that page on our site.) Many food manufacturers like Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker and Pillsbury make German chocolate cake mixes and coconut pecan frosting, so making German chocolate cakes is much easier, and since it's a mix, you don't have to be a gourmet chef to make a good one.

Related Resources: