Revisiting: My First Blogged-About Recipe

Waaaaay back in 2006, not long after this blog, I was mostly writing about restaurant visits and festivals around town (again, the original reason for starting the Charm-City-cum-Baltimore Snacker blog.  It look a few months for me to get around to attempting a recipe.  This surprises me now, since the blog has lately evolved into an almost completely review-free blog, now a mostly educational blog on American cuisine.  But it took me until December of '06 to post my first attempted recipe (note: I did write about my grandmother's Thanksgiving dressing, but I didn't actually write about my attempt at making it, so it doesn't count).  I finally did this for a cookie swap, when trying to make one of my favorite fudges: penuche, or brown sugar fudge.  But I wanted to take advantage of all the modern conveniences available to me, so I found a microwave recipe (which has long since vanished from the internet).

I got microwave toffee, not fudge.

So I thought it would be apropos for one of my final recipes to try this again, 6 1/2 years after first doing so.  The results were much better, as you will see below.

This time I used a recipe from the Eagle Brand website. No, I'm not shilling for them (and if I was starting to do that now, I'd be starting kind of late, no?), but it is a good recipe.  And the best part: it worked!

For this recipe you only need three ingredients (exact measurements in the recipe):

* sweetened condensed milk (which makes me want tres leches cake now)
* butter
* brown sugar (two cups, either light or dark.  They never specify which)

It is also a good idea to have enough parchment paper to line the 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 square pan that you will pour the molten fudge into.

Combine the ingredients in a bowl.  As you can see, I added a few things: a dash of nutmeg, a smidge of cinnamon...

...and a few drops of vanilla extract.

Next, you need to microwave it for ten minutes.  You have to be careful here, because you must stop it every two minutes and stir.  Boiling it continuously for ten minutes will... well, I don't really want to think about that.  This is after two minutes, by the way.

This photo is what it will look like after six minutes.

And here it is after the full ten minutes, a-boilin' fiercely.  Please don't splash this on yourself.  Ouchie.

Next, you must take a mixer and beat it for about five minutes on a low to low-medium speed (I used the  #1 setting on mine).

Spread it in your parchment-lined square pan...

...and place in the fridge until hard.

In the end, I got actual fudge!  Not toffee, but fudge.  In retrospect, I can't say for certain what went wrong that first time.  Did I just not follow the directions?  Or perhaps I was following woefully inadequate directions?  The first recipe is gone, so I will never know.  But microwave penuche can be done.  You just have to make sure you have the right recipe, and are following it the way it's written!

State-by-State Redux: VII of X - The Deep South and Southern States Revisited - The Pudding Is Bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

We continue to examine food below the Mason-Dixon Line with a dessert so important in the South that it pops up in some form in every generically Southern cookbook I have encountered, hands down.  That and on the side of your typical box of Nilla Wafers.

Snacking State-by-State Redux VIII of X: The Deep South and Southern States

What are the Southern States?: always includes the former Confederacy (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia); usually includes Kentucky, and West Virginia; sometimes includes Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Oklahoma and southern Missouri.  The US Census also includes Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands in its "South Atlantic" Census region, though these territories are not culturally part of the South.
Important Cities: Alexandria, Annapolis, Asheville, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Charleston (SC), Charleston (WV), Charlotte, Dallas, Dover, Houston, Jackson, Jacksonville, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Norfolk, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond, San Antonio, Savannah, Tallahassee, Tampa, Tulsa, Washington
Regions and Subregions: Appalachia, Cajun Country, Chesapeake Bay, Deep South, Gulf Coast, Lowcountry, Piedmont
RAFT Nations: bison (central Texas, Oklahoma), chile pepper (western Texas), corn bread & BBQ (northeastern Texas, southeastern Oklahoma, Arkansas, southern Missouri, northern Louisiana / Mississippi / Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, central Georgia & Florida), chestnut (northern Georgia, eastern Tennessee & Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, southern West Virginia, District of Columbia, central Maryland), clambake (Delmarva peninsula), crabcake (Chesapeake coastline of Maryland & Virginia, Atlantic coasts of: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida), maple syrup (northern West Virginia, western Maryland)
Foods the Region is Best Known For: Southern cuisine - typical dishes include: fried chicken, greens, biscuits, corn bread, Brunswick stew, seafood dishes (catfish, crawfish, blue crab and oyster), okra, many kinds of barbecue, pimento cheese, Moon pies, Appalachian foods (stack cake, pickled ramps), sweet tea, juleps; Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper; banana pudding, pecan pie, chess pie, red velvet cake; Cajun cuisine (gumbo, étouffée, jambalaya); Cuban cuisine (Florida), Tex-Mex & Mexican cuisine (Texas & Oklahoma), multicultural cuisines (major cities throughout the South), African-American cuisine (throughout the South)

When the rest of America thinks of Southern cuisine, it typically thinks of either of two things: fried chicken and barbecue (both of which I have explored in various posts before - fried chicken from Maryland and Tennessee, and barbecue from Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and both halves of North Carolina).  But there's a third thing that is so quintessentially Southern that it deserves just as much notice: banana pudding.

Banana pudding is ubiquitous throughout the Southern United States, even in my marginally Southern corner of the country.  Still, I was actually surprised at just how ubiquitous it is.  I flipped through several cookbooks trying to find potential banana pudding recipes.  Every cookbook had at least one recipe for it, and sometimes several.

I grew up eating banana pudding.  My mother, a busy homemaker in the 80's and 90's, did take shortcuts: sliced, slightly ripe bananas and vanilla wafers covered with box vanilla (and occasionally chocolate!) pudding.  It was a favorite dessert while I was growing up.  For this post, I originally thought it would be nice to interpret Mom's recipe.

She told me she got it from the side of the box.

Hmmm...

So off to the box I went.  As I said above, I did also look at various cookbooks, but went with the box anyway.  The recipe I found included something that my mother's banana pudding never included: meringue.  This is not an unusual topping.  In fact, many of the recipes I saw include a meringue topping.  To my surprise, so does the official recipe on the side of the Nilla Wafer box.  This is something my mother apparently missed.  She also missed the recipe for custard from scratch!

But I'll be easy on my mother.  She didn't have the time to make it from scratch or add the meringue.  Heck, it's not like she had to even make it for us at all.

One thing I decided to add to zhuzh this up, since Southerners (and otherners) will go to great lengths to re-interpret their favorite dessert in any way they can: Bourbon.

The Recipe: Bourbon Banana Pudding

To make this banana pudding, with Bourbon, I used the actual recipe on the box (Nabisco, date unknown).

* vanilla wafers (a box costs about $4.50 these days)
* bananas (a bunch ran me about $3)
* sugar (had it)
* salt (same)
* eggs (had them too.  Separate the whites from the yolks)
* flour (had it)
* milk (same)
* salt (had this too)
* vanilla extract (I bought an extra bottle just to be on the safe side.  You can never have too much of this stuff)
* Bourbon (not part of the original recipe; I added about 3 tablespoons to the custard)

Start by putting a layer of vanilla wafers on the bottom of a dessert pan.

Next cut some of your bananas - about half of what you have - on top

Then layer more wafers, then the rest of the sliced bananas, and finally the rest of the wafers.  Use the whole box.  Go on, do it.

Once done, assemble your custard.  In a double boiler (actual or makeshift), mix together the sugar, salt, egg yolks (set aside those egg whites), flour and milk with a whisk over low heat.

Constantly stir for several minutes until it begin to thicken.

Once thickened, whisk in your vanilla and Bourbon.

Mix until blended.

Pour the custard over the banana-wafer mixture and set aside.

Now for those egg whites.  Whip them until form soft peaks.  Yes, I'm using an old, analog egg beater.  Bet you haven't used one of those in a while.

Add sugar and continue to whip until you get stiff peaks instead.

Spread the meringue over the rest of the dessert, sealing the sides to make sure as little of the banana filling peeps out as possible.

Bake in a 350° oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.

It will be nice and browned on the top.

I don't know if my mother has ever had the kind with homemade custard or meringue.  She must have at some point.  Well regardless, she has now, and she liked this.  Full disclosure: I made this on New Year's Eve (yes, I did this two months ago, and typed up this post a few weeks ago from when it posted), and brought it for the family to share while I sat in front of the TV to watch the Twilight Zone marathon and stuff myself with mini-quiches, pigs in a blanket and itty bitty samosas.  And then I got to have delicious, delicious banana pudding.  Mom was supposed to have some surgery on the digestive tract soon after, so this would have been her last meal for about a month.  Then the surgery got postponed, so she got to eat some more.  A lot more.  But we helped her.  A Steel Magnolia can't be expected to eat the whole damn thing, now can she?

- - - - -

We slowly inch towards the Mason-Dixon Line now, as we move out of the South to revisit the food of New England and the Northeast.

Sources:

Nabisco.  "Original NILLA Banana Pudding".  Date unknown.  Copyright 2013 Mondelēz International. All rights reserved.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia and from the Food Timeline State Foods webpage.

State-by-State Redux: V of X - The Midwestern States Revisited - I'm Forever Frying Fritters...

In our final foray into the Midwest, I try to wed some of the Midwest's most quintessential foods together: corn, flour, wild rice and frying (it's not just for the South anymore).  I was, at first, at a loss, but Marcia Adams and her Heartland cookbook came to my rescue once more.

Snacking State-by-State Redux V of X: The Midwestern and Prairie States

What are the Midwestern States?: always includes: Missouri, the Great Lakes States (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota) and the Prairie States (Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas); sometimes includes: Oklahoma, West Virginia and (western) Pennsylvania.
Important Cities: Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Des Moines, Detroit, Fargo, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Omaha, Pierre, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Topeka, Tulsa
Regions and Subregions: The Great Lakes; The Prairie States
RAFT Nations: bison (most of North & South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, northern Missouri, southern Minnestoa, southern Manitoba), chestnut (parts of southern Ohio, West Virginia), corn bread & BBQ (Missouri, Illinois, southern Indiana, parts of southern Ohio & eastern Iowa), maple syrup (Ohio, western Pennsylvania, northern Indiana & West Virginia), pinyon nut (western South Dakota, Nebraska), wild rice (Michigan, southern Ontario, eastern North Dakota, southern Manitoba, northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Illinois & Indiana, parts of northern Ohio & Pennsylvania)
Foods the Region is Best Known For: hearty "heartland" fare; pioneer and Native American dishes; Eastern European, Scandinavian, Southern European, German and Amish fare; sauerkraut; corn, wheat, soy, beef; BBQ (Missouri) & chili (Ohio)

For the Midwest, I wanted to find a recipe that could encompass as much of this vast region as possible.  Midwestern foods that pop in my mind after the last two years of this project include corn, wheat and wild rice.  I found the perfect recipe early on in Heartland: a dessert corn fritter, eaten with powdered sugar and maple syrup (in the Illinois section of her cookbook, page 14).  Her cakey and light "Bishop Hill Corn Fritters" are named for the small utopian community in northwestern Illinois:

The Bishop Hill Colony, a communal Utopian community close to Galesburg, began disintegrating in 1861, when the colonists started dividing up the common property into individual holdings.  The town declined but is now in the process of being restored by its 166 citizens, mostly descendents [sic] of the original settlers. [Adams 1991: 14]

The project continues today.

Of course, I did not follow Adams' recipe to a tee.  I threw in some wild rice just for variety

The Recipe: Bishop Hill (Illinois) Corn Fritters, with Wild Rice

To make these fritters, exact measurements on page 14 of Heartland, assemble these ingredients, most of which you probably have on hand:

* corn (the original recipe does call for canned corn, though frozen or fresh can be substituted.  This organic can from Wegman's was really not too much more expensive than a regular one, so I bought this one instead)
* flour (had it)
* sugar (same)
* baking powder (yup)
* butter (uh huh)
* salt and pepper (that too)
* eggs (same)
* equal amounts of milk (just a quart for about $1ish) and water
* oil (for frying - I used a combination of peanut oil and rice bran oil)
* wild rice (this I had on hand; leave it out if you don't have it.  I added about 1/2 cup)
* maple syrup and powdered sugar (had both)

Boil some wild rice according to package directions.

While that's going, beat some eggs.  That's one of those old-fashioned egg beaters. Bet you haven't seen one of those things in a while, have you?

Add your water, butter and milk...

And stir in the corn.  Make sure you've drained the corn.

Add the dry ingredients and wild rice, and stir enough to moisten.

Heat your oil to deep frying temperature (about 350°F to 375°F) and drop in your fritters in spoonfuls, and fry about two to three minutes a side.

Drain on paper towels, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Serve hot with maple syrup.  Reheat in the oven if you need to.  It's just not the same in the microwave.

Adams meant it when she said "delicate and cakelike" [1991: 14].  These things are just absolutely luscious.  Plus, I felt guilty eating them.  Come on: fried fritters doused in powdered sugar and maple syrup?  Who wouldn't feel guilty eating this?

- - - - -

The next region we will visit is the South.  First, we take a detour into African-American cuisine, an integral part of the Southern food landscape, by looking at one historic, home grown recipe from George Washington Carver himself.

Sources:


Adams, Marcia. Heartland: The Best of the Old and the New from Midwest Kitchens. Clarkson Potter: New York, 1991.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia and from the Food Timeline State Foods webpage.

Snacking State-by-State: Utah II - There's always room for S-A-L-A-D

By most estimates, Utah is Jell-O country.  More Jell-O is eaten in the Beehive State than in any other state in the country.  Utah even went so far as to make Bill Cosby an honorary Utahn [Lindeman 2010].  They love Jell-O.

Official Name: State of Utah
State Nickname: The Beehive State
Admission to the US: January 4, 1896 (#45)
Capital: Salt Lake City (largest)
Other Important Cities: Provo (3rd largest), Orem (5th largest), Ogden (7th largest)
Region: West, Southwest; Mountain (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Pinyon Nut
Bordered by: Idaho (north), Wyoming (northeast), Colorado (east), New Mexico (southeast), Arizona (south), Nevada (west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: Beehive (emblem - for the honey inside it). Bonneville cutthroat trout (fish), cherry (fruit), Dutch oven (cooking pot), Indian rice grass (grass), Rocky Mountain elk (animal), Spanish sweet onion (vegetable), sugar beet (historic vegetable)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: pioneer and Western foods, and Mormon cuisine (stereotyped as bland and hearty, though a new generation of Mormons and Utahns are redefining it): funeral potatoes, fry sauce; Jell-O, especially green Jell-O salad

Food writer Scarlett Lindeman [2010] told The Atlantic Magazine that when her family moved to Utah when she was a teenager, she had no idea that Utah just can't get enough of that jiggly stuff.

When my family relocated to Utah from New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the summer of 1998, we were unaware of the local gelatin affinity. Shiny yellow and blue Jell-O salads sat in our fridge vibrating their friendly "welcome to the neighborhood." We discovered the strange, almost otherworldly suspensions of savory items—shredded carrots, peas, and cubed ham—in gifts of Jell-O molds. And I, just shy of my thirteenth birthday, entered a new semester of junior high and a new culinary terrain. [Lindeman 2010]

This is what Americans in the mid-20th century cheekishly referred to as "salad".  I still have no idea how this even qualifies as salad.

Just as there are many recipes for funeral potatoes (showcased in the previous Utah post), there are certainly hundreds of Jell-O recipes.  But apparently there is one traditional famous green Jell-O dessert recipe, involving cream, pineapple and lemon juice.  What I am assuming is the "traditional", "famous" recipe comes to us from The Essential Mormon Cookbook by Julie Badger Jensen [2004], which is posted on the Raindrops on Roses blog [Tiffany 2010].  I halved the recipe, since Jell-O is not nearly as popular in my home as it is in Utah.

The Recipe: The Official Green Jell-O Recipe

For the official green Jell-O recipe you need:

* lime Jell-O (this stuff is getting more expensive than I thought, with one box at $1.50.  Maybe I should have gone generic?)
* water (right from the tap)
* sugar (had it)
* crushed pineapple with juice (yes, I accidentally bought chunked instead.  I made do)
* lemon juice (had it)
* heavy whipping cream (a pint goes for about $2.50 at Harris Teeter)

First, boil the water.  Wow, this is hard.

Mix the lime Jell-O and the sugar.

Add the hot water to the bowl and stir.

Stir in lemon juice.

And then add the pineapple, with juice.  Put in the refrigerator until it gets a little syrupy.

Meanwhile, beat the whipping cream.  Remember: it will beat fastest when the cream and the bowl are both cold.  Whip until stiff peaks form.

Fold the whipped cream into the Jell-O.

Refrigerate until solid, at least a few hours.

Cut and serve!

This is perhaps the sweetest Jell-O dessert I have eaten in ages.  It is tasty, I will give it that, but eat a few squares of this and your teeth will really be in pain.  No, the pineapple does not make it "healthy".  In all, tasty but very sweet.

Sources:

Badger Jensen, Julie.  The Essential Mormon Cookbook: Green Jell-O, Funeral Potatoes, and Other Secret Combinations.  Deseret Book Company: Salt Lake City, UT, 2004.

GloZell.  "I am Honorary Mormon in Utah ... Green Jello and Funeral Potato".  Video posted November 4, 2011.

Lindeman, Scarlett.  "Jell-O Love: A Guide to Mormon Cuisine".  The Atlantic Monthly, published March 24, 2010.

Malouf, Mary Brown.  "In Defense: Utah Food".  Salt Lake Magazine, posted June 18, 2012.

Malouf, Mary Brown.  "In Defense: Funeral Potatoes".  Salt Lake Magazine, posted June 18, 2012.

Moskin, Julia.  "Not Just for Sundays After Church: A New Generation Redefines Mormon Cuisine".  The New York Times, published January 24, 2012.

Peek, Alison.  "Utah comfort snack food: Onion rings and fry sauce" Examiner.com, posted February 5, 2012.

Tiffany (blogger).  "Utah's Famous Green Jello Recipe".  Raindrops on Roses, posted March 13, 2010.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Utah" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Utah".

Snacking State-by-State: Tennessee III - This Cake Is STACKED!

The Appalachian Mountains extend from Newfoundland to Alabama, but the cultural region we think of as "Appalachia" (with a long or a short a) roughly stretches from Pennsylvania and West Virginia through to Alabama.  Tennessee runs smack dab in the middle of this, and you will find many Appalachian classics right in the Volunteer State.

Official Name: State of Tennessee
State Nickname: The Volunteer State
Admission to the US: June 1, 1796 (#16)
Capital: Nashville (2nd largest, but is the largest metropolitan area)
Other Important Cities: Memphis (largest), Knoxville (3rd largest), Chattanooga (4th largest)
Region: South, Middle South or Mid-South; East Central South (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Cornbread & BBQ; Chestnut
Bordered by: North Carolina (east), Mississippi, Alabama & Georgia (south), Arkansas, Missouri & the Mississippi River (west), Kentucky (north), Virginia (northeast)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: bobwhite quail (game bird); channel catfish (commercial fish); Eastern box turtle (reptile); honeybee (agricultural insect, for the honey); raccoon (wild animal); smallmouth bass or bronzeback (sport fish); tomato (fruit - no, not vegetable)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: Southern foods, including fried chicken, cornbread and so on; Memphis style barbecue (both dry and wet); hot chicken (particular to Nashville); smoked hams; ham and red-eye gravy; Appalachian foods (Brunswick stew, stack cake, etc); anything eaten by Elvis (sure, not many Tennesseeans eat fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, but "the King" would want me to mention it, no?)

The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Heritage (2003) featured Appalachia as one of its featured cultures in its 2003 Folklife Festival.  The list of dishes from the region is lengthy, and some I didn't even realize were from Appalachia:

Stack cakes, shuck beans, chicken 'n' dumplings, soup beans, and fried apple pies-- important regional foods of Appalachia. Add biscuits and gravy, fried apples, chow chow, and gritted corn bread, and this food reveals roots in the cultures of Europe, Asia, [Native] America, and Africa...

...The Foxfire Book, published in 1972, was among the first to give wide national attention to Appalachian food including dried green beans or "leather britches," dried pumpkin, sauerkraut, pickled beets, souse or hog's head cheese, stew, watermelon pickles, and methods of preserving such as burying, bleaching, drying, distilling, and churning. In the mountains, communities began organizing street festivals to celebrate regional foods and established days or whole weeks to honor sorghum, apples, honey, ramps (a kind of wild garlic), maple syrup, dandelions, bean soup, fried chicken, bourbon, buckwheat, and even squirrels. [Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Heritage 2003]

Notice the very first thing they mention is "stack cake".  There are many recipes for this in Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and so on. It typically features dried fruit or applesauce, and is almost as tedious to bake as Maryland's own Smith Island Cake.  What makes it "almost" as tedious is that you don't ice it; instead you only put rehydrated dried fruit in between the layers.

The version I made is a family recipe I found online from the Tennesse GenWeb (TNGenWeb.com) genealogy website, from its section titled "The Table of Our Ancestors, Old Time Southern Recipes".  The source for this Old Time Southern Recipe comes at the bottom:

Note: This is a very old recipe from the family of Hilda Marsh of Knoxville, Tennessee. Stack cakes were indigenous to the East Tennessee and Appalachian mountains. Apples were plentiful and, at least one [sic - at least one apple tree?], could be found on the farms and homesteads in the mountains. [TNGenWeb, date unknown]

I interpret this age old Marsh family recipe below for our final journey into Tennessee food.


The Recipe: Stack Cake


For this cake assemble the following:

 * flour (wow, I actually left out the flour from this photo. Duh.  You will need a lot of it - this recipe calls for six cups.  I used White Lily soft flour.
* shortening (here, Crisco.  I had this)
* dark brown sugar (I did not have this on hand; a box ran around $1.50)
* baking soda and baking powder (had both)
* molasses (had it but am now out; note to self: buy more molasses)
* egg (only one)
* buttermilk (about $2 for a pint from Harris Teeter)
* nutmeg and cinnamon (had both)
* vanilla (again, had to replenish it; bought a small bottle of the pure stuff.  Don't get the budget stuff that's watered down with corn syrup or water, and definitely avoid the "imitation" crap)
* salt (had it)
* dried apple slices (if you don't have this or it's too pricey - which it often is - many recipes suggest applesauce as an acceptable subsitute.  I bought about two 4.5 oz containers at Whole Foods, which surprisingly enough had them cheaper than anywhere else I could find them at $4 a container)

Before anything else, reconstitute the dried apples.  Water is good enough.  Soak for about an hour.

Cream the shortening and brown sugar together.  This killed the third-hand stand mixer I bought for $30.  I had to resort to my hand beater, which fared better.

Add your egg and vanilla and continue to beat.

Next add the molasses.

Here's where the ancient stand mixer started to go downhill: when I added the flour.  The recipe says to alternate between the remaining dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg - not the cinnamon, though honestly it won't hurt anything if you do add it - and salt) and the buttermilk.

Blend until thick.

Your dough will look something like this.  Divide it into six equal balls and roll each ball out onto a floured surface, thin enough to fit into an 8" cake pan.

Press each flattened ball into a cake pan.

Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 15 minutes.

Turn out onto parchment paper if you have no other surface to lay them on, until you have baked all six of these.

Back to the apples.  Once soft enough, mix the apples with brown sugar and the cinnamon.

Now assemble the cake: put one layer on a plate, and spread a fifth of the apples on top.

Stack another layer on top of the apples and continue spreading apples and stacking layers until you use up all the apples.

Let the whole thing sit for a few hours or (better yet) overnight.
\

Cut and serve.

This cake falls apart easily if you aren't careful, but it is a filling and hearty, dark and rich, slightly dry cake.  This is a nice contrast with the moist apple mixture.  Eat a thin slice because it will fill you up fast.  It is delicious and worth the trouble you will go through to make it.  Not to mention the stand mixers that you go through.

- - - - -

We're heading west - southwest to be specific.  South by southwest to be pedantic.  Our next stop on this culinary tour is the biggest state in the South and the Southwest, a place known for big flavors and big steers.  A state that is pretty diverse in and of itself.  We're visiting the Lone Star State soon, with barbecue, chili, Tex-Mex and more.

Sources:

Bedell, Malcolm.  "Nashville Hot Chicken". Far Away: Cooking and Eating in Maine, posted April 3, 2012.  Copyright 2010-2012, FromAway.com  All rights reserved.

Jones, Justin.  Personal correspondence to Nashville Scene website.  Published in "Bites Exclusive: Winning Hot Chicken Recipe!" by Jim Ridley, Nashville Scene, posted July 31, 2008. Copyright 1995-2012, City Press LLC.  All rights reserved.

Neely, Gina, and Patrick Neely, with Paula Disbrowe.  Down Home with the Neelys: A Southern Family Cookbook.  Alfred A. Knopf: New York, NY, 2009.

Raichlen, Steve.  "Memphis Dry Rub Ribs".  Food & Wine Magazine website, 2012.  Copyright 1997 - 2012, American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

Ridley, Jim.  "Bites Exclusive: Winning Hot Chicken Recipe!" Nashville Scene, posted July 31, 2008. Copyright 1995-2012 City Press LLC.  All rights reserved.

Severson, Kim.  "Nashville’s Rising Stars: The Kitchen Is Their Studio" New York Times, published June 18, 2012.

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.  "Appalachian Foods".  From "Appalachia: Heritage and Harmony" Resources Page for the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 2003.  Copyright 2003 by the Smithsonian Instution.

Tennessee Gen Web (TNGenWeb.com). "Stack Cake".  From "The Table of Our Ancestors, Old Time Southern Recipes".  Family recipe from the family of Hilda Marsh, Knoxville, TN.  Date unknown.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Tennessee" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Tennessee".