Erin Mann is baking a new cake every week for a year from the "All Cakes Considered" cookbook and shares her adventures here on AnnArbor.com. Read past columns here.

My mother often made German chocolate cake for my father on his birthday. The sweet chocolate cake, topped with a buttery caramel-like mixture containing shredded coconut and chopped pecans, is one of his all-time favorite desserts. Each birthday celebration, I assumed we were eating a traditional treat from Germany. Did you know German chocolate cake is, in fact, not German at all?

The cake is named after Samuel German, an American baker who created a sweet milk chocolate for Baker’s chocolate company. Somewhere along the way the “S” was dropped from the cake’s name —German’s chocolate cake came to be known as German chocolate cake. What a mouthwatering misconception!

Pastry chef and cookbook author Nick Malgieri details the origin of German chocolate cake in his article “American Beauty” for Saveur Magazine. Apparently, we have a Texas housewife, not a German frau, to thank for this delicious gift. If you enjoy food history as I do, read Nick’s article here to learn more about the background of the cake.

You’ll need a (green) box of German’s Sweet Chocolate, which is available in the baking aisle of most national grocery chains. The box comes with a handy tear-off recipe card for the cake and frosting, but can also be viewed here.

For a little something different, I adapted the layer cake recipe to make cupcakes. Cupcakes are easy to transport and share, and there's no need for plates and cutlery.

Making cupcakes from a cake recipe is simple, just adjust the baking time. The baking time in the original recipe is 30 minutes. I used a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cupcake liners and filled each about ¾ of the way with batter. I baked the cupcakes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 18-20 minutes. The cakes are done when the center springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and/or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I had enough batter to make about 2 1/2 dozen cupcakes.

The cake was sweet and chocolaty, but not super rich like a devil’s food cake. This cake had a fluffy, delicate crumb because of the egg whites folded into the batter.

The frosting caused me some heartache because it didn't reach the desired thickness. I cooked the evaporated milk, egg yolks and sugar as instructed but never achieved the thick, gooey, caramel-like consistency. I stirred in the flaked coconut and chopped pecans and put the frosting in the refrigerator to cool.

Once cooled, it was slightly thicker, but still dripped off the sides of the cupcakes when I frosted them. The drippy frosting made for a messy eating experience, but an appetizing photo opportunity. What's most important is that I enjoyed making them and they tasted just as wonderful as any German(‘s) chocolate cake from my childhood.

Erin Mann is ruining diets one cake at a time with her weekly kitchen adventures. E-mail this baking bachelorette at SheGotTheBeat@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter. Facebook users can also keep up-to-date with A CAKE A WEEK by joining the group.