[1] The dessert acquired its name when cakes and pies were baked in the same pans, and the words were used interchangeably.

[4] The invention of the pie is most commonly credited to French chef Augustine François Anezin[5][6] (also named as M. Sanzian) at the Parker House Hotel in Boston, who reportedly made the dessert for its opening in 1856.

The cake consisted of two layers of French butter sponge cake filled with thick custard and brushed with a rum syrup; its side was coated with the same custard overlaid with toasted sliced almonds, and the top coated with chocolate fondant.

[9] While other custard cakes may have existed at that time, baking chocolate as a coating was a new process, making it unique and a popular choice on the menu.

[10] The earliest known recipe for the modern variant was printed in Miss Parloa's Kitchen Companion in 1887 as "chocolate cream pie".