German’s Chocolate Mystery

We’re highlighting a “Centennial Birthday Cake” with historic notes.

I’m grateful for my mother’s parenting philosophy: making a strong effort to rotate Midwestern dishes, passing-down Gulf Coast recipes, and including international flavors around our Missouri table. Looking back, I’m convinced her determined efforts to alternate gumbo and homemade beignets with meatloaf and cornbread, plus our neighbor’s shared celebration recipe for German Chocolate Cake, sparked my curiosity and appreciation for cuisine from many cultures.

photo by Donna B. Pierce

German Chocolate Cake became the first pastry recipe I mastered, and a long-ago favorite dessert. Making it required the full extension of my pre-teen baking skills. Boiling water, melting chocolate, separating eggs, and carefully sifting flour took up the better part of a Saturday afternoon. I recall feeling very international when mixing ingredients for this three-layer recipe.

Buttermilk, cake flour, coconut and pecans were not everyday pantry ingredients at our home. But I don't remember my mother compla…