Ingredients
- 1 pound dried tart apples, such as Winesap
- ½ cup sorghum
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- â…“ cup shortening
- Approximately 4 ½ cups of White Lily flour, plus enough for flouring the board when rolling out each layer.
Instructions
Cover dried apples with water and cook over medium low heat until most of the water is absorbed and the apples break up when stirred. If apples are not soft enough to break up, add more water and keep cooking. If desired, add a tablespoon or so of sugar to taste. Cool and run apples through a sieve or Foley Food Mill to produce a smooth sauce. Meanwhile combine the remaining ingredients. Dough should be the consistency of stiff cookie dough. Separate dough into five to seven balls. Roll each ball of dough to a ⅛- or ¼-inch thickness. Cut in 8- or 9-inch rounds. (Nevada Derting used a pie pan with a scalloped edge to cut out rounds.) Prick each layer with a fork, making a nice design. Sprinkle individual layers with granulated sugar and bake on a greased cookie sheet at 400 degrees until golden brown (about five to eight minutes, depending on thickness). (Mrs. Derting sometimes baked hers in iron skillets.) Cool and place the first layer on a cake plate. Spread a coating of cooked apples over the layer, within half an inch of the edge. Stack the other layers, alternating cake and cooked apples and ending with a cake layer on top. Save the layer with the prettiest design for the top. Store, covered, in a cool place for several days before serving.
“This is our most requested recipe, and it’s well over 100 years old. We were honored when Southern food icon Nathalie Dupree included it in her magnum opus Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking. And because of this recipe and our efforts to preserve it, the venerable Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets published our comments on stack cake history and technique in 2015. Mrs. Derting, Jill’s paternal grandmother, would have been amazed. Some bakers may be tempted to add spices, but this recipe succeeds without them, allowing the flavors from the farm and the larder to shine through without embellishment. What is essential in its preparation is a flour made from soft red winter wheat. Other types of flour simply won’t work in these proportions. And finally, the cake must “cure” for about three days in order for the layers to soften and absorb the flavor of the apple filling.” -Fred Sauceman
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