OLD FASHIONED APPLE STACK CAKE

The 'Dried Apple Stack Cake' was a popular Southern Appalachian staple of the earlier pioneers. It was a favorite "wedding cake" amongst mountain people who usually gathered in their barns to dance and eat potluck food. All the neighbors baked thin layers of ginger flavored sorghum molasses cakes and brought them to the wedding party. The family of the bride cooked the spicy dried apples which were used to spread between the layers. The more layers the bride recieved gauged her popularity. The cake always showed up at family and church reunions as well.

DRIED APPLES

Peel apples, slice very thin and dry just like corn. Don't scald apples, use just the raw apple. You can put them in the sun if you have a nice place wher flies won't get to them or put them around your stove, in the window with screen wire. Put them on something so the air can get to them. Dry and use them in the winter for fried pies, stewed fruit or stack cake.

TO COOK THE DRIED APPLES

Put 1 pound apples in heavy pan and cover with cold water. You may need to add water several times to keep apples from sticking to pan. Cook until soft enough to mash. While still hot, mash apples and add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, and 1 teaspoon allspice.

MAKE CAKE

CREAM: 1 cup shortening and 1 cup sugar

ADD: 2/3 cup molasses, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, 1/2 teaspoon cloves, 1/2 teaspoon cinnnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda,1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 cup buttermilk, 2 eggs-beaten well.

Add enough flour to make a dough that can be rolled thin. Cut in rounds the size of cake layers, by using layer cake pan. Bake in hot oven around 375 degrees. Spread layers out to cool.

Spread warm, not hot, stewed apples over the layers one at a time and stack one on top of the other. There should be at least six layers and up to 12. Let 'season' for 8 hours before serving.

"In the fall, any of the apple desserts are just right. It's also a perfect season for pear pie. When the weather begins to cool off and I can get local sweet potatoes and pick up persimmons, I enjoy sweet potato and persimmon puddin'. And as the holidays approach, magic pumpkin pie, fruitcake, and apple stack cake are just right on my table."~Foy Allen Edelman, author of Sweet Carolina: Favorite Desserts and Candies from the Old North State