Stack cake is the ultimate
mountaineers' dessert -- a not too sweet, but satisfying and complexly flavored
dessert made of 5 - 7 thin layers of biscuit-like cake covered with a dark, rich
dried apple puree. The cakes, once baked and stacked, are covered with a towel
and put away to ripen for at least two days. When they're finally cut into, the
juice and aroma of the apples have permeated the hard cake, making for flavor
and texture unlike anything else.
Apple Stack Cake
1 lb. dried apples
1 C. sugar
1 C. brown sugar
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. allspice
1/4 t. ground cloves
Enough water to cover apples.
Cook apples until they are tender. Mash and add sugar and spices. Cook for 5
more minutes, stirring to make sure sure apples do not scorch.
Cake:
4 C. flour
1 C. sugar
4 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/2 t. soda
2 eggs
1/2 C. butter
1 C. buttermilk
2 t. vanilla
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until
it looks like small peas.
Add the eggs to the buttermilk and stir to combine. Pour into flour mixture and
add vanilla. Stir to combine. Mix into a soft dough, about the consistency of
cookie dough. If needed add a little more buttermilk.
Grease and flour 9 inch cake pans. Measure 1/2 cup dough into each pan. Dust
your hands with flour and pat the dough out to the edges of the pan.
Bake at 450°F. for about 5 minutes or until slightly browned.
While the layers of the cake are still warm, stack the layers adding 2/3 cup of
apple filling between each layer.
