“My mother made this [Stack Cake] often with apples she dried on a hot tin roof,” writes Ruby Boggs Stoner of Bear Lake, Michigan. Ruby's family lived in Kentucky, one of the mountain-dotted states in which impressive stack cakes have traditionally been prepared.
Stack cakes are culturally akin to the classic European torte.
Cake Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 3/4 cup shortening or butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup sorghum
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Sauce Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups dried apples
- 1/2 tsp. ginger
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. cloves
- 1/2 tsp. allspice
Cake Directions
Mix all dry ingredients, sift. Cream together shortening, sugar, and sorghum. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla.
Put batter, 3/4 inch thick, into 6 greased and floured pans (9-inch). Batter will be thick, may need to pat even with floured hand. Bake at 350° F. Won't take long. Cool.
Sauce Directions
Cook apples in enough water to cover; watch closely that they don't burn; they should be quite thick when done. Add sugar, if desired, and spices. Cool.
Spread between layers and on top of cake. Cover, let stand several hours or overnight.
Available directly from the publisher, and at museums throughout the United States.
Simply Scrumptious Southern Sweets
Copyright © 2003 Patricia B. Mitchell.