National Chocolate Cake Day Date in the current year: January 27, 2024

Cakes are a staple in many cuisines around the word. Early cakes were sweet modifications of bread. In ancient Greece, for example, common cake ingredients included flour, eggs, milk, nuts, and honey. Since the dough was unleavened, these cakes were usually flat and heavy. Later, the Greeks started to use beer as a leavener and invented an early form of cheesecake made with goat milk.

Unlike cheesecake, chocolate cake is a relatively new invention, since chocolate was unknown to Europeans before the discovery of the Americas, and after the discovery, chocolate remained a luxury for centuries. In the late 19th century, Swiss chocolatier Rodolphe Lindt invented a process for making siliker and smoother chocolate, making it easier to incorporate chocolate into cake batters. The first chocolate cakes were probably baked around the same time.

Today, there are plenty of chocolate cake types, including traditional chocolate cake, chocolate layer cake, Black Forest cake, Devil's food cake, flourless chocolate cake, German chocolate cake, chocolate lava cake, Sachertorte, red velvet cake, and many more. To celebrate National Chocolate Cake, you can bake any of them (or, if you're not a fan of baking, order a slice of cake or even a whole cake from your favorite bakery).