A Different Wedding Cake

Thirty years ago I would have never thought that my two sons who are 9 years apart in age would be getting married within a year of each other, but that's how it has worked out.  Over the year we have learned 'wedding speak' and now know the issues involved with this process. From my Appalachian roots getting married was not a very complicated process. My parents got a license, found a preacher, and were married beside the road about a mile from their home. No one attended the wedding except these three people. They went back to one of the parents' houses and lived there until they could manage to have a home of their own. Few families had parties or celebrations. From my so called more modern world, I've often thought this was a bit odd, but believed it was the custom for a 1929 Appalachian wedding.


In a recent phone call with our son we learned that they have not chosen to have a traditional wedding cake; instead they want Appalachian Stack Cake and assorted Italian cookies (from her heritage) for a reception that will host around 200 people. Hearing this I immediately went into a conversation within my own head, "How will I manage to make 15-20 stack cakes assuming that each one serves ten to twelve people?" While they can be purchased through Apple Barn, I would love to be able to provide them since I take pride in being able to make them. Being able to make a great apple stack cake is one of my family traditions. They were my mother's favorite cake to serve to guests.

 From my son's research on apple stack cakes, he learned they were traditional celebratory cakes for many Appalachian holiday and church events.  As it were, each family or friend contributed one cake layer which was brought to the event and assembled with the dried apple mixture.  Thus, the more people who brought a layer, the higher the stack cake became, and the more respect and popularity you had in the community. A ten layer cake would signify a very respected person, or two or three ten layer stack cakes would mean an even larger sphere of influence and popularity.


While I haven't yet answered how I will manage making enough Appalachian Stack Cakes to provide my part of the dessert for 200 people, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to count on each of our guests bringing one cake layer to the wedding. My most recent plan consists of calling my cousin who also makes stack cakes and asking her to join me in an 'apple stack cake cook off' for this event. If all else fails, I suppose there's always Apple Barn.  


Below is a link for an Appalachian Stack Cake. 

 http://www.appalachianhistory.net

patsyhlawson@gmail.com

The Season of Apples

As fall comes around each year my thoughts eventually drift to memories of getting the farm chores done before the 'first cold spell'.  It was routine each year to gather in sweet potatoes, turnip greens, apples, and walnuts before the hard frosts came in November.  There was usually some unspoken sense of urgency about it.

Apples were the most fun because there were so many things that could be done with them.  They could be used to make stack cakes, apple pies, apple dumplings, apple butter, apple jelly and fried apple pies. Mama always had a million ideas for their use. Usually I was involved in the process because Mama firmly believed her job was to teach me every mountain skill she knew so that I would be ready to become a housewife.  While she never said it, I think she believed the Appalachian lifestyle had enormous value economically; 'A penny saved' was truly, 'a penny earned'.  In her case it was more like an apple saved was an apple you didn't have to buy. Mama really didn't relish buying anything if it could be grown on the farm.

On our family farm we had apples, tons of them, which to Mama meant you tried to save as many as you could.  Most of our cooking in the fall revolved around apples; stewed, baked, fried, canned, frozen, preserved, and dried. Every day we had apples in one form or another, for the last five years, some twenty years past Mama's death, I still feel the need to do something with apples in the fall. 

Recently I have been on a quest to find the best apple stack cake recipe to see if I could duplicate Mama's. Mama didn't write her recipes down so I didn't have her blueprint to follow. I asked Appalachian friends, searched a gazillion books, called my relatives, and even consulted with The Apple Barn for a recipe. Each one that I got was different in some way.  I also had to search for dried apples, dark brown, sun-dried apples, not the ones in the grocery store that are white and dried with chemicals. Eventually I began to make progress.

Today I am happy to report that I am decent maker of Stack Cakes.  While they are not Mama's, they are very close.  Close enough to serve with pride to folks who have never had an introduction to them.  If you as a reader would like to know the process, send an email.  I'd like to talk 'stack cake' and would love to have your thoughts and comments.