THIS IS FOR ALL YOU CHEFS OUT THERE

My grandmother was a wonderful cook and I can remember eating all the time when I went to her house. She loved to cook and those are some of my greatest memories of her...in the kitchen. My grandfather loved to cook and eat as well, so when I think of them, my thoughts turn to all the wonderful things I ate in the little white house with a porch swing in a little town in North Texas. We have tried to duplicate many of her recipes but they just don't taste the same. One in particular is her Red Velvet Cake. It was delicious and I haven't tasted one like hers since the last one she made. Another one that many people loved of hers was an apple cake that she got the recipe from her mother-in-law (no written recipe was ever found). My uncle really loved it. So I went searching the web this year before Christmas in hopes of finding a recipe that sounded like this layered apple cake that she made. I've searched in the past, but never found one. But this search was successful and they had a recipe for Apple Stack Cake on allrecipes.com. So I proceeded to make one for my uncle for Christmas. I knew almost immediately that it wasn't going to turn out just like hers. But I think the recipe is probably very close. Basically you have 6 layers of cake that are more like giant thin cookies. Then you have your apple mix that you put in between each layer and on top. My first problem was that there was not enough apple mix to cover the entire cake and make it moist like it should be. The other thing I didn't do is put it in the fridge for days like she apparently did. My aunt and uncle also said they thought she used some kind of liquor on hers as well to make it more moist, rum or wine. Well, I'm not sure exactly how to make this more like my grandmothers so I thought I would ask for suggestions from those of you who love to cook and are better at it than me (hint, hint Chef Michele). Another thing I did to the recipe was use fresh apples instead of dried and I don't think I used enough, only 3. But dried fruit is SO expensive and I tried to be more frugal. Anyway, see what you think and if you have any ideas I would love to hear them so I can make this cake again for my uncle and hopefully it will taste more like Grandma's and less like Angie's.


APPLE STACK CAKE
2 cups white sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 pounds dried apples, cooked and mashed
1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease and flour six 8-inch pans. In a large bowl mix together white sugar, shortening, eggs, soda, baking powder, flour, salt, buttermilk, and vanilla. Divide batter into 6 equal parts. Press into prepared pans.
Bake at 425 degrees F for ten minutes.

To Make Filling: To the cooked and mashed apples, add the brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, and mix. Layer 1 cake, spread filling between layer on top and sides. Do this with each of the 6 layers. Let stand at least 12 hours before cutting.