# Did you know? German chocolate cake is not German, chocolate, or cake? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 2, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347 "2009-10-02T15:01:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheMadHun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@TheMadHun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMadHun)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/1 "2009-10-02T15:01:17Z")
Well, I guess it’s chocolate and cake, but not German. Which I find as a relief. I’ve never liked it and none of my German relatives, who owned two bakeries, had heard of it when we first ran into it when I was a teenager and people would expect us to serve it. [According to Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_chocolate_cake) “Contrary to popular belief, this cake did not originate in Germany. Instead, the name derives from Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate, which was created in 1852 by an Englishman named Samuel German for the Baker’s Chocolate brand. The original recipe for “German’s Chocolate Cake” was sent by a Dallas, Texas homemaker to a local newspaper in 1957. The cake became quite popular and General Foods — which owned the brand at the time — distributed the recipe to other newspapers in the country, and sales of Baker’s Chocolate are said to have increased by as much as 73%. The possessive form (German’s) was dropped in subsequent publications, forming the “German Chocolate Cake” identity we know today” So now I can freely disown it and not feel guilty of ignoring tradition. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/2 "2009-10-02T15:06:30Z")
I saw this on some sort of food show about the ‘making of.’ Fascinated me too. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/3 "2009-10-02T15:11:51Z")
Makes me wonder if the Texas homemaker who invented it ever saw a dime from General Foods. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/4 "2009-10-02T15:20:06Z")
Statements of the form “XYZ is neither X, nor Y, nor Z,” are tempting to make (thank you Mike Myers and _Cawfee Tawk_). But they often turn out to be not quite true. GCC is cake by any common definition of the term. It is moist and porous, contains eggs and milk, is made with cake flour, and baked in a cake pan. As to whether GCC “is” chocolate, despite lacking chocolate icing and being rather light in color compared to (say) devilsfood, I won’t presume to say. But it does _contain_ chocolate - a comparatively small amount, dissolved in boiling water. [Typical GCC recipe](http://www.myhomecooking.net/german-chocolate-cake/German-Chocolate-Cake-Recipe.htm) ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/5 "2009-10-02T15:34:17Z")
Talk amongst yourselves. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/6 "2009-10-02T15:41:23Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > Talk amongst yourselves. Getting a little _verklemmt_? And why is Google Ads asking me, “Are you a Christian?”? ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/7 "2009-10-02T15:56:34Z")
Of course I knew that–they grow a lot of coconuts in Germany, don’t they?! ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/8 "2009-10-02T15:57:28Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Statements of the form “XYZ is neither X, nor Y, nor Z,” are tempting to make (thank you Mike Myers and _Cawfee Tawk_). But they often turn out to be not quite true. > > GCC is cake by any common definition of the term. It is moist and porous, contains eggs and milk, is made with cake flour, and baked in a cake pan. > > As to whether GCC “is” chocolate, despite lacking chocolate icing and being rather light in color compared to (say) devilsfood, I won’t presume to say. But it does _contain_ chocolate - a comparatively small amount, dissolved in boiling water. > > [Typical GCC recipe](http://www.myhomecooking.net/german-chocolate-cake/German-Chocolate-Cake-Recipe.htm) (psst… Check out the first sentence of the OP) ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/9 "2009-10-02T15:59:09Z")
The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. Discuss. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/10 "2009-10-02T16:00:38Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Statements of the form “XYZ is neither X, nor Y, nor Z,” are tempting to make (thank you Mike Myers and _Cawfee Tawk_). But they often turn out to be not quite true. > > GCC is cake by any common definition of the term. It is moist and porous, contains eggs and milk, is made with cake flour, and baked in a cake pan. > > As to whether GCC “is” chocolate, despite lacking chocolate icing and being rather light in color compared to (say) devilsfood, I won’t presume to say. But it does _contain_ chocolate - a comparatively small amount, dissolved in boiling water. > > [Typical GCC recipe](http://www.myhomecooking.net/german-chocolate-cake/German-Chocolate-Cake-Recipe.htm) To be fair, the OP did retract the “not chocolate or cake” statement in the first sentence. This was my favorite cake when I was a kid and I always asked for it for my birthday. And I did learn it was not German in a recent pit thread “I hate Germany” where I tried to credit the Germans with the cake and was immediately corrected. See you can learn things in the Pit, mostly good swears. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/11 "2009-10-02T16:19:28Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > To be fair, the OP did retract the “not chocolate or cake” statement in the first sentence. For my part, I ruthlessly skim OPs. Even if the header doesn’t tell the whole story, I very often respond only to the header. The beast must post, even though he die. > [@](#): > > This was my favorite cake when I was a kid and I always asked for it for my birthday. It’s yumptious when done well. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/12 "2009-10-02T16:29:10Z")
I don’t care what it is. All I know is my birthday is coming up in a few weeks and my wife makes the best damned German Chocolate Cake there is. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/13 "2009-10-02T16:31:16Z")
That frosting is one of the few frostings I could just sit there and eat without anything else. I don’t, but I could. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/14 "2009-10-02T17:04:32Z")
> [@](#): > > The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. Discuss. The Holy Roman Empire was not a Cake, nor Chocolate. But it was, arguably, German. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/15 "2009-10-02T18:31:40Z")
> [@hellpaso](#): > > Of course I knew that–they grow a lot of coconuts in Germany, don’t they?! They are carried there by swallows. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/16 "2009-10-02T19:30:20Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I don’t care what it is. All I know is my birthday is coming up in a few weeks and my wife makes the best damned German Chocolate Cake there is. My favorite for my birthday was French Silk Pie. It’s neither French nor silk, but it is pie! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/17 "2009-10-02T20:33:02Z")
> [@TheMadHun](#): > > Well, I guess it’s chocolate and cake, but not German. > Which I find as a relief. I’ve never liked it and none of my German relatives, who owned two bakeries, had heard of it when we first ran into it when I was a teenager and people would expect us to serve it. > > [According to Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_chocolate_cake) “Contrary to popular belief, this cake did not originate in Germany. Instead, the name derives from Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate, which was created in 1852 by an Englishman named Samuel German for the Baker’s Chocolate brand. The original recipe for “German’s Chocolate Cake” was sent by a Dallas, Texas homemaker to a local newspaper in 1957. The cake became quite popular and General Foods — which owned the brand at the time — distributed the recipe to other newspapers in the country, and sales of Baker’s Chocolate are said to have increased by as much as 73%. The possessive form (German’s) was dropped in subsequent publications, forming the “German Chocolate Cake” identity we know today” > > So now I can freely disown it and not feel guilty of ignoring tradition. Yeah, that’s one of my favorite little food factoids. And couple that with the fact that the “Baker’s Chocolate” company wasn’t so named because it was intended for baking, but because the company was founded by a guy named Baker. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/18 "2009-10-02T20:49:11Z")
I found this out in the early nineties. I promised a friend my typical birthday present–whatever kind of cake (within reason) he wanted. He asked for German chocolate cake. Easy! I thought. I’d just find a recipe at the library (this was pre-Internet). Nine cookbooks later, I gave up, telling him that for some reason nobody but nobody had a German chocolate cake recipe. When I finally found out that the term was trademarked, a sad little mystery was solved. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/19 "2009-10-02T21:00:24Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > They are carried there by swallows. African or European? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347/20 "2009-10-02T21:07:10Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > My favorite for my birthday was French Silk Pie. It’s neither French nor silk, but it is pie! And Black Forest Cake is neither black, nor, in point of fact, a forest. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-german-chocolate-cake-is-not-german-chocolate-or-cake/512347.md?page=2)