Granny's Kentucky Stack Cake Recipe

Granny's Kentucky Sta...

August 18, 2009

When my Granny, Aline Cornett, passed away, I inherited some of her recipes. While sorting through her recipe cards, I discovered she had a very interesting way of categorizing her cards. VG meant “Very Good.” NG meant “Not Good.” The ones with NG would have alternative ingredients listed that Granny had replaced and improved upon the existing recipe. Funny, all she had to do was throw away the cards.

In addtion to the VG and NG, she would write the person’s name in whom gave her the recipe. She would even go as far as writing a little piece of family history on the cards. It was very interesting if I do say so myself. I hope to be as organized and able to pass down my recipes to my kids with family history intact.

I ran across a piece of aging notebook paper. Across the top in Granny’s handwriting was scribbled, “Kentucky Stack Cake. Elbert’s mom’s recipe. Danny’s favorite as a kid.” Now, Elbert was my grandfather and Danny is my dad. To make Dad’s birthday special, I made this cake!! It was huge and so heavy once it was made!! I just knew I was going to make brownie points with this cake. Sure enough, Dad’s eyes widened when I presented him with the cake. He said it brought back such sweet memories of his Grandmother and the golden days of fall in the Appalation Mountains of Kentucky.

The cake was absolutely marvelous!! The layers were like gingerbread cookies and the filling was fresh cooked apples with a touch of cinnamon. The sweet glazed drizzled upon the top and down the sides of the layers were mouthwatering!! Dad said that the cake his grandmother made sat in her kitchen for two days before it was eaten. The longer the cake sits; the more moist it becomes as the apple juices seep into the cookie layers. Makes me want to eat one right now!!!

Now here’s something interesting….. for some reason, I decided to google this cake. It was an odd cake and well, I wanted to learn more about it. So, guess what I found out….. This cake is the traditional Appalation Mountain Wedding cake. During the early 1800′s, ingathering weddings were popular for the times and the means of the mountain dwellers. The bride’s family would provide the apples for the cake. The guests would bring the layers. This would mean if you were a popular bride you had a very tall cake. If you weren’t liked, you well….. wouldn’t have much of a cake.

This is a delicous cake and I highly recommend you make it. It is enormous but well worth it!!

Kentucky Stack Cake

Cream: 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup shortening

Add: 1/3 cup molasses, 1/2 cup buttermilk, and 1 egg

Sift together: 3 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp. ginger, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp soda, and 1/2 tsp salt.

Add to creamed mixture. Mix well. Roll out as pastry. Cut tofit 9 inch cake pan or heavy skillet. Bake layers 10-12 minutes in 350 degree oven. When cool-stack layers with sweetened highly spiced cooked apples (with cinnamon and sugar) OR applesaucecan be substitued if necessary.

For glaze: 1-2 cups powdered sugar, tbls maple syrup, 1 cap of vanilla, and 1-2 tbsp of milk. Stir until lumps are gone…. to make thinner glaze add more milk….. pour glaze over the top of the cake.

Happy baking and God bless!!
Regina

Kay Cornett says:
August 19th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Regina, I was fortunate enough to be on hand when Grandma Cornett made the stack several times. As a young person, thinking things go on the same forever, I never wrote down the ingredients or the procedure. As I remember, those layers are not made in the way we make cake layers today. She began with a large alumnium dishpan; all dry ingredients were put in and a large hole made in the middle for the eggs; lard; molasses and buttermilk. Then the dry ingredients were worked into the wet until you had a stiff like dough that could be easily patted into black cast iron skillets and baked in a coal/wood fired stove. After the layers baked and cooled, she put cooked , dried apples between. It was delicious….a cake that just suited my taste to a “t”.

Before your uncle Earnie died, I decided i was going to try to make him one. Irene Miniard ( a good friend of the family and Grandma) had submitted the recipie to a locally put together cook book. Grandma had taught her how to make the cake. So I made one. It turned out so good. But, I learned if it isnt eaten right away, it seems to mold easily. Now when I make one, it is eaten fairly quickly…no chance for mold to get on it.
I so enjoyed your blog on this recipie , especially telling of Aunt Aline’s way of keeping her recipie cards. That is so like the Aline I remember. I know you miss her. So do I. She was like a blood relative to me.
So, is your Dad’s wedding cake going to be a Ky Stack Cake ?
Kay Cornett says:
August 19th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I am so happy you are interested in homemaking (the most noble calling for a woman) and in family history. God bless you, dear girl.