Apple stack cake – also known as dried apple stack cake, apple jack stack cake, Appalachian stack cake and both Kentucky and Tennessee stack cake – is an Appalachian creation that has graced holiday tables for the past 300 years.
According to Sheri Castle, native of Watauga county and student of Appalachian cuisine, “There is no cake – perhaps no recipe – more rooted in Appalachian culture.”
With recipes traced back to the 1700s, the cake may be one of the first dishes invented by white settlers in Central Appalachia.
Like so many mountain recipes, this cake was the result of mountain people making use of what was at hand. As Our State Magazine pointed out, “the hallmark of cooking in the Mountain South is resourcefulness, making utterly delicious dishes from modest ingredients.”
With apples plentiful in the mountains, farmers harvested enough to last through the winter and preserved the fruit by drying, saucing, layering with straw in a cold cellar, or slow-cooking into apple butter.
Sliced and strung outside or spread on blankets in the sun, apples dried to a leathery consistency only enjoyed by those with excellent teeth. Cooks reconstituted the majority of dried apples by soaking the fruit in hot water before using them in recipes.
The second main ingredient in the apple stack cake is sorghum, another product of fall. Communities gathered to crush sorghum cane, often using a cane press that ran on mule-power. The juice had to be skimmed as it simmered all day, but this was worth the effort. At the end of the day, an entire winter’s worth of sorghum would be shared amongst the crowd. One of the few sweeteners available in remote mountain areas, sorghum was affordable, while white sugar was a rare and expensive treat.
Baking an apple stack cake was an investment of a cook’s time, as layers were baked in a cast iron skillet, usually one at a time, then slathered with apple butter or apple sauce before being stacked into
a cake as high as one dared. Five layers was generally considered the minimum acceptable height.
“It’s a rustic cake,” said Kentucky pastry chef Stella Parks. “Don’t worry if it leans or if patches show through the apple butter. This cake doesn’t have defects; it has character.”
Rick Davis grew up in Graham County enjoying his mother’s apple stack cakes.
“My mom could make the best ones ever,” said Davis. “I remember her using molasses and dried apples. After assembling, the cakes were set back for a while so they could absorb the apple sauce. Really good!”
Davis hit upon a crucial element in preparing an apple stack cake: the cure.
Depending on the recipe, cooks let the cake rest for at least 12 hours, but perhaps up to two days before serving.
Like any mountain tradition, a legend grew up around the apple stack cake and even Martha Stewart fell for the romance of the tale.
According to Stewart’s own apple stack cake recipe, “This dessert once served as a wedding cake; neighbors and friends each brought a layer, and the hosts would add the filling.”
However, the logistics of that wedding cake make no sense. While the time and labor-consuming recipe tended to be reserved for special occasions – including weddings – the communal cake makes little sense. With people adding layers on the day of the wedding, the cake would have no time to cure, defying the tradition of the well-aged apple stack cake.
Though the wedding cake story may be false, Castle lauds apple stack cakes themselves as “a labor of love requiring both time and patience.”
“Putting a homemade stack cake on your holiday buffet table is just about the purest display of mountain love there is,” Castle added.
Reputable recipes are available, among other places, at edibleashevile.com, ourstate.com, and gardenandgun.com.