That cake looks like every image I have of fall rolled into one.
Yum!
Jo

Wedding tradition, eh?

Annie, can you post a picture of your cider press and give a short tutorial?

That cake looks great! So does the cider! Busy weekend you had!

I need the recipe for the stack cake!
Before Annie gets to it....I'll post a heretic's version of apple cider making!
Take all the apples you can find that are cheap...
A few rotten ones give the cider character....we don't even think of worms, spiders, bird poop nor anyother unsanitary thing...I mean if we wanted pasteurized apple juice we would go to the supermarket, wouldn't we?
Then we put all the apples, rotten, worms, bugs, stems. leavs and all into the press.....turn the crank and enjoy!
"Real" cider compared to commercial stuff is like comparing grape juice to wine....not even in the same ball park....and I am convinced that it's all about the worms, bird poop and rotten apples.
Linda C

Oh wow - Elery's last name is Barnes?

Me too!

He's definitely a keeper!

Annie, seriously, I'm jealous of your apple harvest. Down here in skanky old Florida, we couldn't buy a decent apple to save our lives.

I'd like that stack cake recipe too. I tried one once but wasn't too thrilled; it was vry sweet. But I liked the concept so would like to give it another shot.
I can swap for a Danish apple cake recipe made with layers of cake crumbs, apple sauce and redcurrant jelly. It's really good and a great way to use up stale cake crumbs :-)

Oh, Linda, I think I may dump my cider down the drain. It's all about the poop!!!!
And I LOVE cider!
Annie, the cake looks great!
Sherry

Colleen, that recipe is at home, but I'll post it tonight. It's supposed to be better the second day, but I thought it got too soft in the middle. I would have cooked the filling a bit thicker, I think, and it wouldn't get as "mushy" with less liquid. Bear with me, Vola, I'm not from Tennessee, LOL.

Incidentally, Vola passed away a couple of years ago, so she and my Grandma are probably up there shaking their heads. (grin)

Jessica, I can't access photobucket from work, it's one of the blocked sites, but I have apple press pictures at home.

Despite LindaC's contention that it's the worms and bird poop that make the cider, I don't use those. (grin) I actually wash my apples before I press them and I only use my own or the organically grown ones from my local orchard. I don't want a bunch of chemicals in my cider. I do know that LindaC is right about the commercial orchards, all the drops, the bruised apples, the knotty or wormy ones, go into the press. Of course, they pasteurize theirs, mostly. (snicker) I'm also careful that my apples aren't near any pastures or animals, although I can't keep the deer out of the orchards, I know. No cow manure, etc., but because of the deer and birds, I still wash the apples, LOL. Old cidermakers say not to wash apples because you wash off the natural yeast that causes a good fermentation but I'm not making applejack, I'm making cider!

My press has a grinder and a press, so I wash the apples, toss them into the hopper. I cut out bad spots first. Then we turn the crank, it's all done by hand, no motorized functions here, LOL. Turn the crank and the crushed apples fall into a container that looks like a bucket without a top or bottom, and about 1/4 inch space between the slats. When the container is full I put a round wooden weight on top of the apple pulp and move it to the other end of the press, where it gets pressed down with a vise type instrument. The juice gets squished out of the apple pulp and runs downhill on the platform through a little hole and into a container under the press. I filter the cider through an old pillowcase that works perfectly for that purpose, then bottle up whatever the kids don't drink. Into the freezer it goes, unheated, unpasteurized, etc.

If I don't have pictures on photobucket, I'll take pictures of the press this weekend, if anyone is interested...

Annie

Tennessee Stack Cake

1/2 cup solid shortening
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. buttermilk
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 tsp. ground ginger
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Dried Apple Slices

Cream shortening, add sugar and beat well. Add buttermilk, soda, baking powder, salt and ginger and mix well. Add flour, one cup at a time to make a stiff dough.

Divide the dough into 5 equal portions, place each on a cookie sheet and pat into a 9 inch circle. Bake at 400 degrees for about 6-8 minutes, or until golden brown.

Carefully remove to a wire rack to cool.

Stack the layers, spreading 3/4 cup of filling between each. Let stand overnight ... garnish with dried apples.

Filling:

4 cups dried apples
2 2/3 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

Combine apples and water in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer about 30 minutes or until tender. Set aside to cool.

Mash apples and stir in sugar.

Source: Southern Heritage Cakes Cookbook

Ohiomom, the one I have is a little different, you pat half a cup of dough into round cake pans, making 8 layers. The filling has nutmeg and the cake doesn't use ginger, baking powder or buttermilk. The layers are more like a cookie dough than anything. I think there are probably a bunch of variations on this.

Annie

Now Annie, You know that I look forward to the apple season pictures. I remember the pictures from every year that I've been on this site. Please post pictures of the 'big press' from this coming weekend. It wouldn't be fall without your photo's.

Looking forward to the recipe of the stacked cake.

OK, here is the recipe I used. I still think I'd cook the filling a bit thicker, so the cake doesn't get so soggy.

Apple Stack Cake
Vola Barnes

Cake:

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Filling:

2 eight oz. packages dried apples\
5 cups wter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

This recipe makes seven 8 inch rounds.

Stir together flour, soda & cream of tartar. Cream sugar, shortneing and butter until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, then flour mixture, beating at low speed. Put 1/2 cup of dough into each greased and floured cake pan, as many pans as will fit in your oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes, cool a couple of minutes in the pan then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

Simmer apples and water for 45-50 minutes or until apples are very soft. Add sugar and spices and mash the apples. While filling is still hot, stack layers, spreading filling on each layer before adding the next layer. Chill several hours covered.

Serves 16

Annie

It ain't good apple jack unless there is a worm in the bottle. After it has hardened up a bit it can be frozen so only the good stuff can be poured off. Not that I know of anyone that has done that because running a still upsets the gubment revnuers. Pure phylisophical conjecturing on my part fer certain.

leaving this one unsigned so nobody knows who wrote it

Annie, your cider and cake look wonderful. Sounds like he is just as energetic and ambitious as you are, so you make a good pair.

I would be interested to hear about your pork roast recipe. Apple cider with the pork sounds really good!

Does a traditional cider press work anything like this little gem (the latter powered by electricity)?

Here is a link that might be useful: KA

Probably more like this..

Here is a link that might be useful:

Annie, your recipe looks more like the ones I saw from western KY and Ohiomom's looks closer to the ones I saw that claimed to be from southereastern KY. Interesting!
Now, in some parts of KY, the top layer would have a white glaze on it that drips down the sides "like a veil".

Stack cakes and jame cakes were everywhere there. I've had more than my share of awful jam cakes for one lifetime (although I got to taste a couple of really good ones, too...almost all the good ones made me ladies in the 80s or 90s.)

I remember my dad bringing home cider from his friend's house. They would press for two solid days, and as thanks dad would get all the cider he wanted.

And I haven't had any decent apple jack in many years.

No apple jack??? I would kill to be able to give that a try. Annie, did you see the last issue of Mother Earth?

When Steve & I were in Canada last August, we stopped by a cidery that made WONDERFUL hard cider; it was more like a wine than a sweet cider. We would have shipped as much as we could afford home, but the blasted alchohol regulations wouldn't let us. Plus it needed to be refrigerated.

I did buy a bottle of Autumn Apple Cider that is more of a dessert wine; we're saving it.

You're sooooo lucky!

Kathy, that issue of Mother Earth is on my end table, waiting for me to read it.

I'm told, though, that apple jack is actually produced through the process of freeze distillation, you just let the cider harden, freeze it and the stuff in the middle with too much alcohol to freeze is apple jack. I'm also told it would "kick my b*tt". Ahem.

I have some recipes for apple jack that are actually more like fermented apple wine, I might actually try one. Later, after the holidays!

Elery and I did buy a couple of bottles of Black Star Farms hard cider when we toured that winery and I liked it better than most other wines I've tried so far. I still have a bottle, maybe we'll drink it on Friday when Elery and I have our own holiday meal.....

Annie

My parents used to by a wooden barrel of cider every fall. They added yeast and dried apricots to the barrel then let it ferment 6-8 weeks. Then Dad would tap the barrel and they would drink the hard cider.

In the 1970's when I was in college in Maine, we used to buy gallon glass jugs of unpasteurized cider. I would drink a little of the cider to lower the volume in the jug then would add a tsp. of yeast and a scant handful of dried apricots to the cider. I would then replace the cap on the jug with a balloon and place the jug in my dorm closet. When the balloon was completely inflated, the hard cider was ready. With the glass jug, it was easy to separate the apple jack from the batch.