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National Chocolate Cake Day is a nonofficial holiday which is celebrated on January 27 each year. This day is to commemorate this sweet treat that’s been a part of American society for about 252 years. It’s a great day to learn about the chocolate cake, or more likely, to serve up a plate of this delicious dessert. After all, we don’t really need to have a birthday or anniversary to enjoy some chocolate cake.

Many people believe that chocolate cake has been around since ancient times but that isn’t really true. While it is true that the ancient Egyptians were the first to bake cakes and that chocolate was first invented over 3,000 years ago by the Aztecs, the pair didn’t join up until about the middle of the 18th century in America. This is when Dr. James Baker and a chocolate maker teamed up to make the first chocolate cake in 1765.

Dr. James Baker had learned how to make chocolate by grinding the cocoa between two large millstones at his local mill. However, the process was laborious and time-consuming. It wouldn’t be until 1828 when Conrad Van Houten learned how to mechanical extract the fat from cacao liquor that the process became quicker and chocolate became less expensive. This made it more available to the masses.

In 1847, one of the first chocolate cake recipes was published by Eliza Leslie in The Lady’s Receipt Book but American households really didn’t begin to add chocolate into their cakes until about the 1880s. They wouldn’t do so until the 1920s. This is when a food company based in Pittsburgh named P. Duff and Sons created the first boxed cake mix. During the 1930s, they would go on to create a devil food boxed cake mix but unfortunately, they had to put it on hold due to rationing during World War II. After the war ended, General Mills and Duncan Hines took over the market with their cake mixes. This is when the chocolate cake really began to take off in America.

What is your favorite type of chocolate cake?