The First Chocolate “Cake” Was Made In 1764. It Was To Be Converted To A Beverage

Updated April 27, 2024

National Chocolate Cake Day celebrates the cake more people favor. And more often than not, we celebrate our special occasions like anniversaries, birthdays and weddings with cake. Why not enjoy chocolate cake on January 27th every year?

• 1562 – The saying “You can’t have your cake and eat it”(originally “eat your cake and have it”) is first seen in print in 1562 in John Heywood’s ‘Proverbs and Epigrams.’
• 17th Century – During the 17th century, in England, people believed that keeping fruitcakes under the pillow of those who were unmarried will give them sweet dreams about their fiancee.
• 1764 – The history of chocolate cake goes back to 1764 when Dr. James Baker discovered how to make chocolate by grinding cocoa beans between two massive circular millstones. The liquid was poured into molds shaped like cakes, which were meant to be transformed into a beverage.
• 1785 – The first birthday cake was originally a cake given as an offering on a person’s birthday. The first reference to ‘birthday cake’ came in 1785.
• 1832 – Sachertorte is a famous Viennese cake. It is the most famous chocolate cake in the world. Sachertorte was invented by Austrian Franz Sacher in 1832 for Prince Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna, Austria.
• 1847 – A popular Philadelphia cookbook author, Eliza Leslie, published the earliest chocolate cake recipe in 1847 in The Lady’s Receipt Book.  Unlike the chocolate cakes we know today, this recipe used chopped chocolate.  Other cooks of the time such as Sarah Tyson Rorer and Maria Parloa all made contributions to the development of the chocolate cake and were prolific authors of cookbooks.
• 1879 – The process of conching was developed by Rodolphe Lindt to make chocolate smoother and silkier.
• 1920s – The first boxed cake mix was created by a company called O. Duff and Sons in the late 1920s.
• 1947 – Betty Crocker released their first dry cake mixes in 1947.
• 1990s – Molten Lava cakes with liquid chocolate centers became popular.
• German chocolate cake has nothing to do with Germany. The cake itself is from the United States and bears the name of Samuel German. German developed a formulation for the dark baking chocolate used in his cake.
• A chocolate cake is also known as a Mahogany Cake.
• It has been the most popular cake since Pillsbury introduced the flavor in 1948. Before then, there were only a few flavors of cake mixes such as yellow, white, spice, and ginger, made by General Mills. The mixes were very easy for cooks to use because all they had to do was to add water, mix, and bake.
• The word ‘cake’ comes from Middle English kake, and is probably a borrowing from Old Norse.
• The meaning of ‘cake’ has changed over time, and the first cake was: A comparatively small flattened sort of bread, round, oval, or otherwise regularly shaped, and usually baked hard on both sides by being turned during the process.
• In Scotland, and parts of Wales and northern England, cake took on the specific meaning of ‘a thick, hard biscuit made from oatmeal’.
• More than 29% of U.S. school districts have banned bake sales due to anti-obesity regulations.
• The first French word for chocolate mousse translates into English “chocolate mayonnaise”
• The “blood” that you see in the infamous “shower scene” in Psycho is actually chocolate syrup.
• The term “chocolate cake” means a white or yellow cake with a side order of a chocolate beverage.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Coffee House Writers

Vocal Media

Mobile-cuisine

Just Fun Facts

National Today