German Chocolate Cake
It’s a fake, but a delicious fake. German chocolate cake isn’t German at all. It’s good-old American. A guy named Sam German worked for Bakers Chocolate Company (the oldest American chocolate company by the way). He developed a dark baking chocolate for them, which was named Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate. Sweet! In 1957, a Texas housewife sent the original recipe (late 1800’s) for a layered chocolate cake to a Dallas newspaper. She called it German’s Chocolate Cake. A star was born!
Ok, follow this rather murky trail to German chocolate cake. It starts with German-American Day, October 6, started by Ronald Reagan in 1987 to celebrate German American heritage. A German celebration isn’t complete without some sort of sweet concoction, is it? Which leads to chocolate, because no celebration is complete without chocolate. Which prompts the first thing that comes to mind: German Chocolate Cake!
German Chocolate Cake
German Chocolate Cake: You can buy absolutely out-of-this world German chocolate cake, made by the Chocolate Bakery in Sacramento, CA. It comes in 9 inch and 7 inch sizes. Both are three layers, separated by coconut and pecan filling, iced with buttercream frosting. YOU CAN BUY HERE! $40 for 7″ $60 for 9″
German Chocolate Brownies
German Chocolate Brownies: A slick variation on the cake, the brownies are iced with the traditional coconut and roasted pecan frosting. You’ve got to be careful with brownies, so they stay moist. These are specially baked to seal in the moisture – and moist they are! Baking them with imported chocolate, in small batches, is also a help. Perfect for more casual occasions, these German chocolate brownies get rave reviews from everyone who buys them! YOU CAN BUY HERE! $23
German Chocolate Cheesecake
German Chocolate Cheesecake: This is the ultimate, for sure. You love cheesecake? You love chocolate? You love German chocolate cake? It’s the best of all worlds combined in this German chocolate cheesecake, made by Cheesecake City in Berkeley, CA. This chocolate fudge cheesecake sits on a chocolate cookie crust. It’s iced with the traditional brown sugar, pecans and coconut. Four pounds of goodness makes it perfect for birthday parties, Thanksgiving, Christmas, anniversary dinners… YOU CAN BUY HERE! $45
Chocolate Desserts Cookbook
Cholocolate Desserts Cookbook: So you want to bake your own homemade German chocolate cake? Get this cookbook that features everything chocolate, including: German Chocolate Cake. (The German chocolate cake recipe in here is great as is the german chocolate cake frosting recipe!) If you want to bake outside the box, this chocolate dessert cookbook is definitely for you. S’mores, Red Velvet Cake,Sachertorte, Nanaimo bars… All in one place.YOU CAN BUY HERE! $13.57
Original German Chocolate Cake Recipe: If you really want to make what comes closest to the original German chocolate cake recipe, see below. The recipe comes from a cookbook published in 1907 (compliments of Walter Baker & Co.) called Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes by Miss Parloa. (Oh how times have changed!) Be warned, however. It’s going to take some time, isn’t easy, and doesn’t taste anywhere near as good as today’s recipes. (Sorry, Miss Parloa!) The frsoting is white and chocolate, not the coconut and pecan mixture we’ve come to associate with today’s German chocolate cake.
Beat ½ cup of butter until it turns to cream, and then slowly add, while beating, ½ cup of sugar. After this becomes frothy, beat in ½ cup of milk, slowly, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Beat 6 egg whites until stiff and frothy. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder with 2 cupfuls of flour. Stir the flour and egg whites alternately into the mixture. Butter 3 deep tin cake plates, and spread 2/3 of the batter in 2 of them. Stir 1 oz of Walter Baker & Company’s Premium No. 1 Chocolate, melted, Into the remaining batter and spread this batter in the 3rd cake plate. Bake the cakes in an oven moderately heated for about 20 minutes.
Put one layer of white cake on a cake serving dish, and spread with icing (see recipe below). Put the dark layer on top of the white layer, spread with chocolate icing, and then add the third layer of white cake and spread it with white icing as well.
THE ICING. Add 2 gills of sugar and 1 of water to a granite-ware saucepan and softly boil until bubbles begin to come from the bottom–say, about 5 minutes. Remove it from the fire quickly. Do not disrupt the sugar while it is cooking. Pour the sugar mixture slowly into 2 stiffly beaten egg whites, beating the mixture the whole time. Beat until the icing is thick. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Use 2/3 of this as a white icing, and to the remaining 1/3, add 1 ounce of melted chocolate. To melt the chocolate, shave it fine and put in a cup,which is then placed in a pan of boiling water.