National German Chocolate Cake Day – June 11

German chocolate cake—the fudgy, nutty, and irresistibly sweet dessert that so many of us mistakenly believed hailed from Germany! With its layers of soft chocolate cake, rich coconut-pecan frosting, and sometimes even a crown of maraschino cherries, it’s a decadent classic. But if you asked someone in Germany about it, don’t be surprised if they give you a confused look—they’ve likely never heard of it!

The real origin? It starts with Samuel German, an English-American chocolate maker who worked for the Baker’s Chocolate Company. In 1852, he developed a special dark baking chocolate that was sweeter than the usual variety. The company honored him by naming it Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate.

Fast forward about a hundred years to 1957, when a Texas homemaker named Mrs. George Clay submitted a cake recipe to The Dallas Morning News. She called it German’s Chocolate Cake, after the chocolate brand she used—not the country. The recipe was featured as the “Recipe of the Day,” and it didn’t take long for it to skyrocket in popularity.

In fact, the cake became such a sensation that Baker’s Chocolate sales jumped by 73% in just one year. Capitalizing on the trend, General Foods, who owned the Baker’s brand at the time, began sharing the recipe nationwide. From that point on, German chocolate cake became a household name—minus the apostrophe, which eventually got dropped.