Old-Fashioned Apple Stack Cake

Photo credit Kiley Melicker

I’ve known Apple Stack Cake to be the classic cake of Appalachia and Appalachian people, highlighting their frugality, sense of community, and excellent taste in cakes. This particular recipes comes from the early 20th century mining community in Rich Mountain, located by the border of Tennessee and Kentucky. It was made every year for Christmas by beloved grandmother, Recia Ayers Devaney.

Click here to read about Recia and more history of the Stack Cake

This traditional recipe was copied down by her daughter, Trudy Wideman, who shared it with me. This 7-layer cake is the moistest and sweetest apple stack cake I’ve had, and has the most tantalizing aroma while baking.

The cake layers are more like a dough that gets patted out, instead of a batter. The shortening helps keep the layers pliable and easier to work with.

Any day becomes a special occasion with this cake – it’s definitely worth the time, effort and cake pans.

Plan ahead. This cake has to sit 24 hours before slicing.

Old-Fashioned Apple Stack Cake

A traditional 7-layer Appalachian cake. Sweet and spicy layers of a cookie-dough like cake are layered with a dried apple butter filling. It requires sitting overnight for 24 hours to fully absorb the moisture into the layers.
Print Recipe

Equipment

  • 1 to 7 9" cake pans (I had 4 pans, so I baked 4 and then 3. 8" cake pans will also work for slightly thicker layers)
  • Off-set spatula, or flexible rubber spatula
  • Parchment paper
  • 4 quart, heavy-bottomed pot
  • Immersion blender (optional)

Ingredients
  

For the Dried Apple Butter

  • 5 cups water
  • 1 pound dried apples, rough chopped
  • 2 cups brown sugar
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp salt

For the Cakes

  • 1 cup vegetable shortening
  • 2 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
  • 2 each eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • Pinch nutmeg

Instructions
 

Start the Dried Apple Butter

  • Bring water to a boil in medium-large, heavy bottomed pot.
  • Add chopped, dried apples to boiling water. Cook uncovered over medium heat until almost all water is absorbed – about 25 minutes.
  • Add brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and salt. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
  • Keep apple butter warm on stove while making cakes.
  • Optional step: Depending on how much you rough chopped your apples and how much you stirred, you might end up wanting a slightly smoother apple butter. The easiest way to achieve this is to keep the apple butter in the pot, and use an immersion blender until desired smoothness. I liked mine mostly smooth with a few large chunks of dried apple.
    After you've blended or not blended your apple butter, still make sure to keep apple butter warm on the stove while you make your cakes, giving it a stir once in awhile to make sure it isn't scorching.

Start the Cakes

  • Heat oven to 425 F/220 C. Grease cake pans generously, and line bottoms with a circle of parchment paper.
  • Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a large bowl. Set aside.
  • Beat together brown sugar and shortening until light, either in the bowl of a standing mixer or by hand.
  • Incorporate eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract.
  • Alternate adding buttermilk and dry ingredients to mixture. Beat after each addition until just combined.
  • This will produce a dough rather than a batter. Divide dough into seven equal portions. Tip: if you have a kitchen scale handy, weigh the dough. Divide that number by 7. It will save you some guess work.
  • With lightly floured hands, pat dough into baking pans. It might take a little bit of effort. Layers will be very thin.
  • Bake each layer for about 10 minutes, until lightly golden and springs gently to the touch. Allow to cool about 15 minutes, and then very gently remove the cake from the pans. This can be a little tricky. If you try to remove them while still very hot, they are a little too fragile and can easily break. If you wait too long, they're harder to get out. Waiting 15 minutes seems to be just right.
    Once cakes are out of the pans, allow to cool on a wire rack until they can easily be handled (they will sort of feel like cookies once cooled).

Assemble Cake

  • Using either a cake stand or a large plate or board, start assembling the cake layer by layer. Use about 3/4 cup of apple butter between each layer, or more or less to your liking. I liked having my apple butter spread to a 1/2" thick. Use an offset spatula or flexible rubber spatula to spread out filling. Handle cakes carefully as they can be quite delicate.
  • If you're left with a bit of extra filling, you can choose to cover the top and side with apple butter for added moistness, or choose to leave them bare (which is traditional.)
  • Once your cake is assembled, let the apple butter cool to room temperature, and go sit down because you've been working awfully hard. When the cake is cool, cover with a cloche, or an improvised cloche (like a large overturned bowl), or loosely wrap it in plastic. Allow to sit 24 hours at room temperature before slicing.