Actually on the recipe that my Mamarosie used, it was called "Grandmother's Stack Cake". The recipe that we have that is written out is from a cookbook project my grandmother worked on when she attended Knoxville Business College in the 60's/70's (not totally sure). So the recipe is probably from a classmate. My Mamarosie crossed out some info and wrote in other info, so here's here edited version (remember to prepare atleast 2 days in advance!!!):
6 c. self-rising flour
2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
3 large eggs or 4 small
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
There are no instructions - this part I'm just recalling from learning to do from Mamarosie. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl (you'll want the top of the bowl to be very wide !!). Make a well in the center of the flour large enough to work the rest of the ingredients. Add the sugar, butter, and shortening and smash together using your hands. Add the eggs one at a time, working into the sugar/fat mixture. Last, add the buttermilk in three installations, working in some of the flour from the sides of the bowl to bring the mixture back to a batter consistency. Last, add the vanilla extract. Once all ingredients are incorporated, begin working the flour into the batter until you have a stiff enough dough to form a ball that is slightly less dense than cookie dough (I don't know how else to describe!!).
At this point, you can refrigerate the dough for 1/2 hour or just go on into separating into 6-7 smaller balls of dough. Press each small dough ball into the bottom of a greased and floured 9 inch round cake pan until you have covered the bottom of the pan with a relatively thin layer of dough. (it helps if you have a whole bunch of 9 inch round cake pans, cuz then you can do them all at once and just bake!) Bake each layer at 400 degrees for 11-15 minutes or until "golden brown and delicious" to steal a phrase from Alton Brown. Recipe should yield about 6 or 7 layers (in my family we inevitably burned one or had one stick to the pan!!!). Turn the layers out onto cooling racks or tea towels to cool completely.
For the apples, there is no recipe. You can just use jarred applesauce and add some spices, or you can cook some fresh, frozen, or dried apples (I find 3 lbs of fresh apples works, and usually I have some left over) and sweeten and spice them. The spices we always use are similar to pumpkin pie spice. 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp clove, 1/4 tsp allspice, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, or any variation of the like. I find also that the preference is toward a slightly tart apple flavor, and to that end, I usually only use around 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar to sweeten the apples (this can be left off entirely if the apples are sweet enough!!).
Once you've got your apple "sauce" made, begin layering the cake. Advice is to choose the most attractive layer for the top, and hopefully your layers are near to the same thickness with each other. Once installing the bottom layer on desired surface, place generous layer of apple sauce all the way to edges. Repeat for each layer except top. Wrap cake tightly in foil or keep in air tight cake keeper and wait 2 days to cut. The layers are dry and need time to soak up the apple mixture into the cake. I find that even after a couple of days, when you cut it you get lots of crumbs, but I think that's due to the slightly cookie-ish layer consistency.
Serve with or without whipped cream (I love it with a tiny bit of whipped cream and cup of coffee in the morning!)
Wow, I took forever putting that recipe on, didn't I! I hope you will try it and hope that you like it. Perhaps you can even give me some pointers. I only make it a couple times a year, and am not the world's greatest baker, so if there's something I'm doing now that could be changed to produce a better texture, I'd love to hear about it. It's a bit of effort, but I think well worth it. Of course, I am biased, being from East Tennessee wanting to carry on the tradition from Mamarosie!!
