A sweet treat can turn a bad day around and make a good one great.

Since today (Wednesday, October 14, 2026) is National Dessert Day, it’s the perfect time to celebrate cakes, ice cream, donuts, cookies, and more.

Before looking at the sugar rush of deals that you can score today, let’s take a look at the history of a classic dessert, the chocolate chip cookie:

In the grand scheme of desserts, chocolate chip cookies are fairly modern inventions.

Many sources attribute the invention of the chocolate chip cookie to Ruth Wakefield. According to the “Gastropod” podcast hosted by Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, this is inaccurate.

One of the expert guests on the podcast, pastry chef and author Stella Parks, told the hosts that she found a 1928 newspaper article with a chocolate chip recipe that predated Wakefield’s version. The yummy cookies were also found in supermarkets before Wakefield got involved.

Despite probably not inventing the classic dessert, per se, Wakefield did help popularize it for the masses.

She and her husband opened the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, in 1930. Partly because of its location between Boston and Cape Cod, many celebrities such as Cole Porter, Joe DiMaggio, and Eleanor Roosevelt began frequenting its restaurant.

At that time, modern chocolate chips as we know them now did not exist.

Chocolate bars were broken into small pieces or “chipped” to make the necessary ingredient.

Nestlé took notice of the increase in chocolate bar sales and approached Wakefield about her recipe.

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