Where was German chocolate cake first invented?

German chocolate cake was first invented in Texas.

The earliest known published recipe for the cake appeared in 1956 in The Irving News Record, a newspaper in Irving, Texas. It was called “Summer German Chocolate Cake” and was submitted by Daisy Pearce, who received it from her daughter, Francis Beth Montgomery Tomlinson. A closely associated recipe appeared the following year in The Dallas Morning News, credited to Dallas homemaker Lucy Clay.

Despite its name, the cake is not a German invention. It was named after Samuel German, an English-American chocolate maker who developed German’s Sweet Chocolate for Baker’s Chocolate in 1852 or 1853. The cake traditionally combines chocolate layers with a cooked coconut-and-pecan frosting made with egg yolks and evaporated milk.

General Foods later promoted the recipe nationwide, helping make it a U.S. classic. The possessive “German’s” was eventually dropped, which created the misleading impression that the dessert came from Germany.