Dean's seven-layer caramel cake — seen its cousin anywhere in Middle Tennessee?
Tomorrow is my cousin Fonnie's birthday. I won't say which one, but I haven't ruled out the use of Roman numerals. Anyway, her one request was for her favorite cake: your down-home favorite and mine, a caramel cake.
I know where to get the best caramel cake I've ever tried that wasn't my grandmother's: at Dean's Cake House in Andalusia, Ala., a stop for many Nashvillians en route to (or coming back from) Seagrove Beach and the Destin area. Kay West once brought one of Dean's seven-layer wonders to the Scene offices, and the sugar-stoked feeding frenzy that resulted was embarrassing even for this gang of gluttons.
But Burt Reynolds in a Trans Am I ain't, and I don't have 12 hours for a round trip to south Alabama. Even this Andalusian road dog has limits. So I turn to the Bites Brigade to ask: Who has the best caramel cake in town or hereabouts? It's been a while since the topic came up on Bites — but when it did, boy, did you have some opinions.
