World Chocolate Day is the perfect occasion to try a chocolate cake recipe, so here’s looking across the ocean to the United States and its German chocolate cake. No, it's not a German cake but named after Sam German, an English-American baker who in 1852 developed a sweet, mild baking chocolate for the Baker's Chocolate Company. The chocolate was named German's Sweet Chocolate in his honour. A recipe using it appeared in a Dallas newspaper in 1957 under the name ‘German's Chocolate Cake’: the apostrophe-s making clear it was named for a person, not a country. When General Foods widely circulated the recipe, the apostrophe was dropped, and the cake became ‘German Chocolate Cake’, a misnomer that has stuck ever since. The cake is a rich chocolate cake, which is defined by its coconut pecan frosting. The cake itself is a classic American cocoa-based chocolate cake, made thin enough with boiling water that the batter pours, not scoops, into the pans. This is the technique that produces an exceptionally moist crumb, with the boiling water blooming the cocoa powder, deepening its flavour and loosening the batter so it bakes up tender and soft rather than dense. The buttermilk ensures the layers stay moist, along with the eggs, both of which should be at room temperature before being added to the batter. This chocolate cake recipe’s filling is made by cooking brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, egg yolks, and evaporated milk into a rich caramel with pecans and sweet coconut folded in, off heat. It is sticky, sweet, nutty, and texturally generous in a way that sets it apart from the smooth buttercream that coats the outside of the cake. The combination of the two frostings, one applied between and on top of the layers, one spread over the sides and exterior, is what makes each slice so layered and satisfying.