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Mamaw, Sorghum and Stack Cake; Appalachian Delights

October 14, 2022 by Christy Martin

   

Fall in my part of Appalachia brings memories of college football games and hikes in the mountains. In my grandparent’s time, it was a time of harvest. It was apple drying time for my grandmother and the women who came before her. Walnut and hickory nuts were falling for the picking, and cane was waiting for sorghum making. All those ingredients to make the sweet treats her family loved had to be harvested.

I have a few early memories of my grandmother, Mamaw to her 13 grandchildren. Most center around her farmhouse kitchen. She was a small, dark-skinned woman of Native American ancestry who always wore dresses covered by an apron and stockings held up by elastic and rolled down to just below her knee. When she worked outside, she wore a bonnet. She always had a lip full of snuff. Her long hair was in a roll at the back of her head, secured by hairpins. She smelled of the snuff and her kitchen.

Apple Stack Cake with a dried apple filling

Mamaw had a farmhouse kitchen. There were a few cabinets my grandfather had built. One contained a large, deep, enameled white sink with fat rolled edges. There were windows above it that let in sunshine and air. They overlooked the smokehouse where at one time, her meat was smoked, cured, and stored. Her kitchen contained a Hoosier-style storage cabinet that held flour in a large bin. It had a built-in sifter and some storage for cooking supplies. It had an enameled pull-out shelf that allowed her to roll out the flour for biscuits and pies. An electric stove stood where a wood cook stove once did, and an electric refrigerator replaced her old oak ice box.

Both sides of the kitchen had doors to enclosed porches where food and supplies were stored. Air and ventilation were provided thru the porch doors. The air that came through them was some relief on hot summer days. The kitchen had a large dining area with a farmhouse-type table big enough to seat Mamaw’s seven-member family and guests or farm workers. To me, the kitchen, dining room, and table seemed gigantic. The room where food was prepared and enjoyed was the largest in the house.

Mamaw’s wood cook stove

By the 1950s, my grandparents were buying their groceries from the store. One thing you couldn’t buy there that made the cake so good was dried apples. They still came from Mamaw’s apple trees. When the apples were ripe, Mamaw sat on the front porch peeling and slicing the apples using a white enameled dishpan for the slices and a bucket for the peelings. The apples were small. It took quite a while to have a “mess” for drying.

My grandfather had a large board he set outside in the brightest sunlight atop a couple of old cane bottom chairs. Papaw and Mamaw placed a clean cloth over the board and scattered the apples in a single layer on top of the covered board. Another piece of thin fabric went over the apples to keep most of the flies and other bugs away. Over several days, the apples were occasionally turned as they baked in the sun. The apples were brought in at night. When the apples were dried enough, they were stored in cloth bags and kept to use as part of the filling for the Apple Stack Cake and pies.

Making sorghum molasses in Cades Cove before it became part of the Smoky Mountain National Park

According to my Dad, sorghum making was a big day-long family affair. The sugar cane was stripped of its leaves and other debris and crushed between rollers pulled by the family horses or mules. A green liquid came from a process that boiled over an open fire in big iron pots. It took hours for the liquid to turn into sorghum molasses that, when cooled, were stored in crocks or jars. It was used to sweeten everything.

I am sure my grandmother did other things besides cook, sew and work in the garden. I have read letters she wrote as a young woman, and she was literate and intelligent. She was an avid reader. The most amazing thing to me about her is what she saw and lived in her 96 years. As Mamaw aged, the world had changed. The Tennessee Valley Authority brought electricity to the rural south; women got the right to vote, cars, war, and so many other things brought cultural and other changes to her once self-sufficient life.

Sundried apples

I feel her presence in so many ways these days. She appreciated nature and animals, her love of a good book, and her quiet acceptance of what she could not change. Most of all, I am aware of her desire to give pleasure to those she loved by making sweet desserts for her family. I understand about Apple Stack Cake, hickory and walnut pie, candy, and all those other sweet treats you made from scratch for your hungry family. Thanks, Mamaw, for that expression of love.

Apple Stack Cake is a Tennessee dessert and is sometimes referred to as Mountain Stack Cake. It is also unofficially referred to as the Tennessee State Cake.

Sweetening had two categories in early Appalachia. A visitor in the old days might be asked which they preferred their coffee or tea to be sweetened with, long sweetening or short sweetening. Long sweetening was molasses or honey. The short sweetening was brown sugar.

Finally, I found a recipe for Stack Cake that seems similar to Mamaw’s

Dried Apple Stack Cake (6 layers) *

1 and 1/4 cups sugar                                                                 ½ cup buttermilk

¼ cup molasses or brown sugar                                                 6 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup butter or shortening                                                         1 teaspoon soda

2 eggs                                                                                       3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla                                                                     ½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon                                                    ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375. Cream sugar and shortening; add molasses, vanilla, and eggs, and beat thoroughly. Sift together dry ingredients and add alternatively to creamed mixture. Divide the batter into six equal parts and shape it into round balls. Place a ball in the middle of a greased 9-inch skillet or pan. Pat dough to the edge of the skillet or pan, turning the pan/skillet so the dough will be evenly distributed. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the top is lightly brown. Cool the layer slightly and remove from skillet/pan. (Cool for about 2 minutes). Avoid leaving it too long, as it will break up when removed if it is too cool. Use a spatula or knife to loosen the edges, and tap the skillet/pan to loosen. Repeat for six layers.

Spread hot filling on the first layer, add the second layer and spread more filling. Continue until all layers are stacked. The original recipe calls for home-dried apples, but regular cooking apples may be substituted. Let the cake ripen in a closed container for 10-12 hours before serving. Up

Dried Apple Filling

1 pound home-dried apples                                           ½ teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup granulated sugar                                                  2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ cup brown sugar or molasses                                     ½ teaspoon cloves

Wash apples, cover with water, and cook until tender. (Presoak apples if desired and cook in soaking water.) Mash apples enough to spread easily; add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Spread hot apple mixture between cake layers.

*The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture’s “Cooking Tennessee Style” (1975)

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Filed Under: Food and Drink Tagged With: appalachia, apple stack cake, sorghum, stack cake

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