National German Chocolate Cake Day

June 11th is National German Chocolate Cake Day in the United States.

What is the difference between a German chocolate cake and a normal chocolate cake? This is a specific type of chocolate cake and, despite the name, it isn't from Germany - it's from the United States. The cake is actually named after Sam German, rather than the country, who created the type of dark baking chocolate that is used in the recipe, and it was originally known as German's chocolate cake. The baking chocolate itself, created for the Baker's Chocolate Company, was called Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate.

A German chocolate cake is a layered cake which is filled, and possibly topped, with a caramel made from egg yolks and evaporated milk, that has coconut and pecans stirred in. Chocolate frosting and maraschino cherries are also sometimes added.

Image: Tracy Hunter from Kabul, AfghanistanTracy Hunter from Kabul, Afghanistan / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

National Chocolate Cake Day

National Chocolate Cake Day is on January 27th in the United States.

Chocolate cake is what it sounds like - a cake made with chocolate, although other ingredients can also be used, especially those that can be used between layers of the cake and to glaze the outside or top of it. In most chocolate cakes, these extras tend to use cream, or more chocolate.

Although chocolate has been around since the 18th century and it became much less expensive in the 19th century as processes for extracting  the required ingredients from cacao beans improved, chocolate cake itself is a rather more recent creation. The ability to make chocolate cakes improved by the end of the nineteenth century, but recipes were still mostly for chocolate drinks.

Cake mixes to make chocolate cake at home were introduced in the 1930s and by the end of the century various "death by chocolate" cakes became popular. Today it is possible to get a wide range of different cakes, some of which contain no flour at all.