German Chocolate Cake

I just saw a recipe on CBSNews.com for German Chocolate Cake.  But it really wasn’t German Chocolate Cake.

German Chocolate Cake is made with a certain type of chocolate called German chocolate.  Named not for the country but for the person who created the chocolate whose name was Sam German.  It has a very distinctive taste and is what gives a German Chocolate Cake its unique flavor.

The recipe posted on-line today looks like a very complicated recipe for a decadent chocolate cake.  But as decadent and delicious looking as that cake may be, you can’t create any old chocolate cake and call it German Chocolate Cake.  Especially when you don’t even use German Chocolate in the cake!

Real German Chocolate Cake contains German Chocolate (in the green box in the baking chocolate section of the grocery store) and is made in three layers.  Each layer is separated by a coconut/pecan filling and the same filling covers the top of the cake.  The sides are left empty of filling or frosting.

The cake that was posted masquerading as German Chocolate Cake does not contain German Chocolate and is covered in chocolate ganache.  It really does look delicious and is probably an incredibly good chocolate cake.  But it is not a true German Chocolate Cake.

Why does this bother me?  Because it is spreading misinformation.  A lot of people learn to cook from TV. They watch Food Network or The Cooking Channel, pay attention to the chef/cooks preparing the dishes, copy down recipes (or download them from The Internet), and try to duplicate the dishes at home.  These TV chefs/cooks should not be calling dishes something they are not.  If you substitute ingredients that would make something a classic dish, then you aren’t making that dish.  If something is gumbo, it is supposed to contain okra. If something is saffron rice, it should contain saffron. And if something is German Chocolate Cake, it needs to contain German Chocolate.  Otherwise it is just a chocolate cake!

I know someone who was making one of my sister’s recipes.  When my sister asked her how it came out, she, the person making it, said that she didn’t have pork so she substituted some other kind of meat, and since she didn’t have several of the other ingredients, she substituted something else for them. In other words, she didn’t make the recipe.  She made something but it wasn’t the dish for which my sister had given her the recipe.

I’m all for making up new recipes.  I do it all the time.  A lot of the dishes that I make are my versions of other people’s dishes.  But I am careful that I don’t stray too far from the original.  My apple pie recipe is apple pie.  Because it contains apples.  My macaroni and cheese is what it is because it contains macaroni and cheese.  And when I make a German Chocolate Cake, it actually contains German Chocolate!!

I guess I will get off my soap box now.  I think I have made my point. And now that I have written German Chocolate Cake ten times, I have a craving for one.  I may have to make one and bring it to work to share.  Yum!