Old Fashioned Stack Cake Recipe

Last Updated on June 29, 2022 by Rebecca Huff

Old Fashioned Stack Cake

Throughout Tennessee and Kentucky, this old-fashioned stack cake goes back generations where fresh apples were abundant. The most traditional stack cake is an apple stack cake, made with dried apples. Prepare this recipe with apples or any other fruit you fancy. Try both the strawberry and apple stack cake!

The number of layers you make for your stack cake is entirely up to you; however, this recipe will make six layers. If you want to get all crazy, grab a large bowl, double the recipe, and make a dozen layers. How fun is that?!

What you put between the stacks will depend on which type of stack cake you prefer. Here are some ideas:

• apple butter, apple filling, apple sauce
• peaches and peach jam
• strawberries and strawberry jam
• Appalachian apple butter filling
• apricot preserves

Old Fashioned Strawberry Stack Cake Recipe

My family loves a fresh strawberry cake. Not the kind with jello and strawberry frosting, but the beautiful layered cake with slices of fresh strawberries tucked inside.

Fresh, sweet, organic strawberries are heaven's candy! Make sure to include plenty of fresh strawberries along the edge of your serving plate.

Fresh berries come into season in early May where I grew up. Many of my birthday cakes, whether chocolate or vanilla, were topped with fresh strawberries. Nothing beats the yummy sweet flavor of a big bowl of fresh strawberries topped with whipped cream!

My fourteenth birthday highlight was a strawberry stack cake that my mom prepared using her strawberry freezer jam. She also tinted the glaze a pretty pink color using red food coloring. It filled her glass cake stand to the top of the lid. The cake was many layers tall, and I was thoroughly impressed.

Recalling the best strawberry cake I'd ever tasted, my son requested a strawberry cake with intense strawberry flavor. So, I ended up making the same old fashioned strawberry cake, minus the pink tint, for my son's 14th birthday this year. He was so happy with the cake that I couldn't resist sharing the recipe with you!

For our family, sweets are not an everyday occurrence, and I prefer to save especially sugary desserts like this one, for birthdays or other special occasions. Besides, this cake requires a bit more time because of all those layers. If someone makes you this cake, consider it a labor of love!

To make the stack cake, you will follow the cake recipe. The filling will change depending on what fruit you want to use. Frosting is not used between the layers; instead, we use fruit or jam. Choose store-bought or use your own. Thinly sliced strawberries in between the layers are very pretty. You can use a mandolin slicer (Amazon affiliate link) or food processor slicer if you want them to be uniform.

The glaze is a simple one that can be stirred up at the last minute if you wish, but the cake is also good without the glaze. Alternatively, use a dusting of confectioners sugar on top, garnish with strawberries, and call it done.

Strawberry Cake

Tips for making the best Homemade Strawberry Cake

One to two hours before you begin cooking, let the butter and eggs come to room temperature.

I have found it easiest to get good results using a stand mixer. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl while the butter and sugar are mixing. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl often to make sure all of the butter is incorporated.

Mix the four large eggs with the vanilla extract and whisk well before adding to the creamed granulated sugar and butter. This is the best way to keep it from looking curdled or split.

I only have two round cake pans, so I have to repeat the baking process multiple times. If you have more than two, go ahead and cook as many layers as you can. Cool the cakes on a wire rack before trying to stack or cut them. You can also cook thicker cakes and then cut them into 1-inch cake layers.

Thinner layers require shorter cook time, thicker layers will need a slightly longer bake time. The best way to achieve a perfectly baked layer of cake is to use a cake tester.

If you don't have strawberry jam, you can do what I did in the video and use strawberry puree or lightly chopped strawberries. I put my fresh strawberries in my food processor on low speed for half a minute to achieve this texture.

You can substitute whole milk for the buttermilk if you don't have it. Alternatively add a teaspoon of lemon juice to the whole milk to achieve a similar effect.

Add real strawberries, preferably whole, to th e top of the cake instead of buttercream frosting. This stack cake is tall and it would be very hard to frost. So we use a glaze that is simple and tasty.

Alterations to the Homemade Strawberry Cake Recipe

You can also use this strawberry cake recipe to create delicious strawberry cupcakes. Top them with whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

My daughter made a cheater version using cake mix and told me it wasn't nearly as good as made from scratch. Still, she said it satisfied her craving for a strawberry layer cake. The buttermilk in this recipe gives it a tangy flavor that perfectly balances the sweetness.

Appalachian Dried Apple Stack Cake

Traditionally, a cast iron skillet was used for baking the cake layers in the oven. To make an Appalachian dried apple stack cake we need to start with the apple filling. Dried apples are popular in southern Appalachia since drying apples was the best way to preserve them.

Simmer the dried apple filling ingredients until it becomes thick. Use this to spread between layers.

When making this variation of stack cake, the original recipe called for sorghum molasses. To keep it simple, when making the apple cake, I use one cup molasses and one cup of brown sugar in the cake batter in place of the sugar.

Caramel can also be used in place of the powdered sugar glaze. You can see the caramel on the top and sides of the cake above.

Appalachian Dried Apple Stack Cake actually tastes better after it has had time to sit for a day or two. Use a cake stand with a cover and if you can…wait. See note below.

Notes:

Use prepared pans, no matter how non-stick your cake pans are. When making any layered cake, I can't stress enough how important it is to line bottoms of pans with parchment paper. Doing this will almost guarantee that your cake will come out whole.

If your oven is not balanced, you will have lopsided cake layers. Don't let that stop you from making cakes. You can trim them with a knife or, stack them alternating so it all evens out. The taste is what counts to the people who are eating cake!

To prevent lopsided cake layers, use a level to see if your oven is balanced, and add shims accordingly to get a perfectly balanced oven.

Total time in the oven may vary. Test for doneness with a toothpick or cake tester before removing cakes from the oven. Use a cooling rack to allow the strawberry cakes to cool before attempting to add jam and strawberries.

If you don't have cake flour you can use all-purpose flour mixed with cornstarch. Per one cup of all purpose flour, remove and replace two tablespoons of flour with equal amounts of cornstarch. Stir this new flour mixture well and you're good to go. Using straight all purpose flour will result in a heavy crumb.

Typically, I use unsalted butter to make these stack cakes, although in a pinch I've used salted butter and they turned out fine.

Traditional apple stack cake was covered and left to sit for 2-3, up to even 5 days before slicing and serving. According to tradition, this allowed the cake to absorb moisture from the apples. Good luck hiding your cake for that long if you have kids in the house. For best results, use a serving plate with a lid or you may need to cover it with plastic wrap.

Cake will be good for a week in the fridge or a few months in the freezer.

My mom and I plan to make the dried apple stack cake with apple pie moonshine at Thanksgiving!

An alternative to strawberry shortcake, this strawberry cake recipe is also delicious with half the layers and using cream cheese frosting.

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