I remember this cake! It is part of my "dessert heritage", as my dad's three "old-maid" sisters who lived at the old home place baked their stacked Apple cakes in an old wood-fired range in the dead of winter when all the fresh apples were long gone. As a hobby grower of antique Apple varieties, I dry lots of them, and an glad to have a new/old way to enjoy them. Only a few bakers here remember this cake, which my late mom made sometimes - I haven't found it among her recipes. As to the wedding anecdote, I think it's only a romantic notion, since big wedding parties are very much a recent thing: most couples just found a judge or preacher to perform a simple ceremony. Most folks here in the North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee mountains were quite poor and lived quite simply, as my grandparents did. Anyway, thanks KAF for great info ! And, as a P.S.,could you ask Ms. Castle if she has a recipe for old-fashioned fried pies, using dried apples? My attempts have been,shall we say, less than stellar....it's a pastry problem.

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