Southern Recipe Restoration Project

For this installment of our ongoing series, a reader tells us why a recipe called Sad Cake made everyone who tasted it so happy.

The contributor: Melanie Nugent, who has spent much of her life working for her family’s baseball cap manufacturing business in Putman County and has also managed several restaurants. She now lives in Tallahassee with her husband, Pat, a former assistant manager for the Braves, and works for Comcast Cable Corp.
The story: “This was a cake that would appear at all types of gatherings in Cleveland, Tenn., and Bradley County in my teen years from 1976 to 1979: funerals, family outings, political functions and church covered dishes. The whole community seemed to know this recipe, so I am not sure of where it first originated, but you could bet it would be on the table if more than a dozen people gathered. Someone would always say before serving: “Looks sad, tastes great.”
-- As told to Susan Puckett

This dessert reminded chef and cookbook author Virginia Willis of a big cookie rather than a tender cake. “It’s a breeze to prepare, but I took one look at it and thought it needed some chocolate! Hmmm, maybe next time we can try the chips in the batter!”
Although the recipes didn’t call for it, Willis couldn’t resist topping it off with a scoop of ice cream.