A wholly twentieth-century cake, a "reader recipe," the story goes, that was printed in a Dallas newspaper in 1957. That Texas food editor, Julie Bennell, clearly had an eye for the unusual (and maybe a craving for chocolate?) for this cake contained a quarter of a pound of sweet chocolate. German's Sweet Chocolate was specified, a smooth bittersweet blend named after Samuel German, the Walter Baker & Company employee who'd formulated it in 1852. Though German's sweet chocolate always sold well enough, it didn't take off until 105 years later. And then mostly in Texas. The sudden run on German's mystified the General Foods district manager until he traced it to the newspaper recipe. According to Betty Wason (Cooks, Gluttons, and Gourmets, 1962), he asked Julie Bennell, the Dallas food editor, if he might send the recipe to other food editors around the country. And when it appeared elsewhere, reader letters avalanched in. Writes Wason, "A St. Louis homemaker wrote to her paper saying it was like meeting a long lost friend; her mother-in-law had given her this recipe thirty years before when she was a bride and she had somehow lost it." Before long, home economists at General Foods headquarters in White Plains, New York, refined the recipe, adding another company product: Angel Flake Coconut. Idea men rechristened it German Sweet Chocolate Cake and beginning in 1958, had it printed on the wrapper of every bar of German's Sweet Chocolate. It remains there to this day. Note: General Foods has been absorbed by Kraft Foods, Inc.

Makes: 9-inch, 3-layer cake, 16 servings

• Cake
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 (4-ounce) package German's Sweet Chocolate
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 4 egg whites, stiffly beaten
• Coconut-Pecan Frosting
• 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 slightly beaten egg yolks
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups flaked coconut 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
  

1. CAKE: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line bottoms of three 9-inch layer cake pans with baking parchment or wax paper and set aside.
2. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt onto wax paper and set aside.
3. Melt chocolate in boiling water and cool. Microwave Method: Place chocolate and cold water in large microwave-safe bowl and micro on HIGH (100 percent power) 1 1/2 to 2 minutes until chocolate is almost melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
4. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Blend in vanilla and melted chocolate. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour and beating after each addition until smooth. Fold in beaten egg whites.
5. Divide batter among three pans and bake 30 minutes until cakes feel springy to the touch and begin to pull from sides of pans.
6. Cool cake layers in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Loosen carefully, turn out on racks, peel off baking parchment, and cool to room temperature.
7. COCONUT-PECAN FROSTING: Cook and stir evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter, and vanilla over moderate heat until thickened and the color of caramel, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in coconut and pecans, and beat until of spreading consistency.
8. To ASSEMBLE: Frost top of each cake layer with coconut mixture, then sandwich layers together. Leave cake sides plain.