Cupcake Digest: National German Chocolate Cake Day

Second Edition

German Chocolate Cupcake
from Confections Cupcakery

Here at Cupcake Correspondents we are counting down the days until National German Chocolate Cake Day on June 11th! So give yourself a break from your summer diet and indulge in a German Chocolate Cupcake! Yummy! Now before you break into a sprint to your local cupcakery, we are pleased to give you some calorie free food for thought :)

If the thought of German Chocolate Cake has you conjuring up mental images of Oktoberfest and all things Deutschland, well you would be mistaken... It turns out that German Chocolate Cake is about as American as apple pie! Welche? (What?) Ja! (Yes!) Turns out this luscious concoction of moist chocolate cake and smooth coconut pecan frosting emerged in 1957, after a submission by Mrs. George Clay to The Dallas Morning News. It ain't German it be Texan ya'll! YEEHAW!

This clever housewife used a sweet baking chocolate manufactured by the Walter Baker's & Company, called Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate, to make her famous Sweet German Chocolate Cake. Newspapers around the country quickly started to print Mrs. Clay's recipe as it's popularity began to be as big as the Texas sky.

The German's Sweet Chocolate baking chocolate was the creative brain child of a Baker's & Co. employee named Samuel German. He developed this semi-sweet baking chocolate in 1852 with it's wonderfully sweet and deep chocolate flavor that boast 46% cacao. What makes baking chocolate special is it has been tempered to melt smoothy and evenly while baking, thus creating a flavorsome chocolate taste.

So it your haven't already guessed by now, the namesake for German Chocolate Cake is not the homeland of bockwurst, but a pioneer in baking chocolatier Samuel German. Not many chocolatiers have a renowned cake named in their honor. So hats off to Mr. German and his semi-sweet baking chocolate breakthrough!

We have witnessed great entertainment pairings over time, like: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Lucy and Desi, Thelma and Louise, Tom and Jerry, Pinky and the Brain, and the list goes on... BUT no pairing entertains better than German Chocolate Cake and Coconut Pecan Frosting. YUM!

Coconut Pecan frosting is a cooked frosting that end up like a thick and spreadable caramel with coconut and pecans mixed in. Cooked or boiled frosting is sometimes referred to as poor-man's frosting.  For example, like buttercream frosting, cooked frosting achieves the same smooth texture, but without buying excessive amounts of expensive butter or cream. Mrs. Clay turned this simple inexpensive frosting into a fancy southern classic by adding an exotic ingredient like coconut with traditional southern pecans. Thus creating one of my favorite guilty pleasures... thanks Mrs. Clay!

So make sure you honor National German Chocolate Cake Day on June 11th, and head on down to your local cupcakery and get yourself a German Chocolate Cupcake!

Happy National German Chocolate Cake Day!

From your friends @ Cupcake Correspondents

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