What’s in a name?

What’s in a name?

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”

A quote from Romeo and Juliet by Willam Shakespeare (ca. 1600).

Pardon me if I take the liberty of changing the above mentioned quote a little bit. In my case, “…That which we call a cake by any other name would taste as sweet.”

I am not a chef nor a culinary expert, but searching for different baking recipes is my hobby. I enjoy baking cakes and cookies. While I was searching for recipes, I came across an interesting one of “German Chocolate Cake”. With a picture so appetizing that I could not control myself and read the whole recipe. Among the ingredients, there was a lot of sugar. Thus, I decided that instead of experimenting with the cake myself as I was not sure about the final result, I planned to go to Germany. Yes, you read it right! I live nearby Germany, so it was not difficult for me to search for the scrumptious cake. 

I went to Aachen and looked for a bakery. It was a big bakery with lots of cakes and gourmet items. I went inside and asked the lady if she had the German Chocolate Cake. She looked at me with surprise as I very discreetly asked her about  German Chocolate Cake. She showed me a few cakes but none of them looked like the picture I saw, with dripping coconut and pecan frosting. She asked me what exactly I was looking for. By this time we were both perplexed and confused. I don’t know what she was thinking of me but I think she might be surprised to see a non-German so nationalistic that even for the cake it has to bear the name German.

I disappointed left the bakery, but the desire to eat a German Chocolate Cake has not disappeared. In the meantime, I met a friend of mine, who happened to be a German. We were discussing about food and I thought of asking her if she knows where I can buy German Chocolate Cake. To my utmost surprise, even she stared at me with the same astonishment as the lady at the bakery. I was speechless….. I quickly searched for the picture on my mobile phone and showed it to her. She said that they don’t have any such cake in Germany. We searched a bit about the origin of the cake and found out that it was of American origin and the baker who invented this cake, his name was Samuel German. It was a moment of revelation for both of us.

Now I am planning to make it myself as I can not go to America. 

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References

• “German chocolate cake.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org, 19 December 2021,     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_chocolate_cake