Chocolate cakes come in all forms—bundt, layers, cupcakes; frosted, unfrosted, glazed. But beyond its shape and its frosting, is there any real distinction between one chocolate cake and another?
Technically, yes. That makes the cake fluffier and airy, which lends itself to the use of a light glaze, ganache, or even just a sprinkle of powdered sugar. I'm partial to devil's food cake myself, preferably covered in billowy white icing. One bite takes me straight back to the Devil Dogs of my school lunchbox days. If you ask most people what distinguishes those three common chocolate cakes—red velvet, German chocolate, and devil's food—however, and you'll get no such specificity.
While almost everyone can describe what they love about each, few can say what makes the layers themselves all that different. Even food historians disagree on their origins. I've spent days poring over cookbooks and newspaper articles, reading up on the history of American layer cakes , and found myriad variations and historical theories for each.
Some say the red velvet cake made its debut at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City in s, for example, while others claim it originated in Texas. No one argues that its appearance on Sex and the City accounts for its recent popularity. And did you know that German chocolate cake is not from Germany? Read enough recipes and backstories, and your head may start to spin.
Other than the color of red velvet, it can be hard to tell which cake layer is which by sight alone. What gives them away, usually, are the fillings and frostings , though even those are not entirely consistent.
Here, we explain the differences and similarities between this delicious trio. German Chocolate Cake is famous for its filling—it has a rich, sticky-sweet custard studded with coconut flakes and chopped pecans.
The sides are traditionally left bare so the cake is easy to recognize, though some variations like this delicious one keep everything under wraps beneath a blanket of dark chocolate frosting. Of these three cakes, German chocolate is the only one that relies entirely on melted chocolate , as opposed to cocoa powder, for its flavor.
In fact, its name comes from Sam German, the man who developed a sweet baking chocolate for the Baker's chocolate company of Boston. Conversely, chocolate cake is made with melted chocolate, rich butter, cream, and milk, a much heavier combination of ingredients. Veulens says that coffee is typically added to further enhance the chocolate flavor—in most cases, you will not even taste it in there.
It's time to settle the debate about what makes these two delicious cakes so different from one another. By Cheyenne Buckingham.
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