Funny you should ask, David, as the question recently came up around here too. The short answer is that dried fruit makes this dish more traditional. Like other traditional Appalachian food, this cake takes advantage of food that's been preserved to last all year - hence the dried apple. If you really want to give a version with fresh apples a try, we'd suggest using them to make an apple butter, which can then be spread on the layers. Hope this helps to make for a second successful bake! Mollie@KAF

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