Accessibility links
Celebrating Not-So-German Chocolate Cake This year marks the 50th anniversary of the German chocolate cake, which is certainly chocolate --and coconut and pecan — but is decidedly not German. The name comes from Sam German — who was either an American or an Englishman, depending on what you read.

Food

Celebrating Not-So-German Chocolate Cake

Heard on All Things Considered

Celebrating Not-So-German Chocolate Cake

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/11331541/11331546" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the German chocolate cake, which is certainly chocolate --and coconut and pecan — but is decidedly not German. The name comes from Sam German — who was either an American or an Englishman, depending on what you read.

In 1852, he invented a style of sweet baking chocolate for the Baker's chocolate company. The company named it after him, but "German's Chocolate" didn't become well-known until 1957. That's when a Texas homemaker sent her now-legendary cake recipe to a Dallas newspaper.

The recipe was so popular that German's Chocolate sales shot up 73 percent in one year. Newspapers across the country reprinted the recipe.But somewhere along the way, German's Chocolate Cake lost its apostrophe-s, leaving Germany holding the credit for a classic American dessert.