As August winds down, late-summer apples are coming to the market. These apples are perfect for baking into cakes and pies and are small sneak-peeks into the aromatic autumn desserts around the corner. One of our favorite recipes to bake this time of year is apple cake.

Apple history in the Southern mountains

Apples were an important food in the Southern mountains. They grew well, and they had many uses. You could eat them raw or use them to make cider, vinegar, applesauce, apple butter, cakes and pies.

And you could dry apples easily without any special equipment. Apples were cut into thin slices, placed near the stove, fireplace, or outside in the sun to dry. What remained when they dried was pure, intense apple flavor. Dried apple slices became the basis for fried apple pies and apple butter and even today are an essential ingredient in Appalachian cooking.

Apple varieties

Nowadays, you can’t find all the old apple varieties that grew in these East Tennessee mountains. However, you can still find some early apples, like Ginger Gold, Lodi, Gala and Mollie’s Delicious. They’re all different in appearance and flavor, for example, as the Ginger Gold is yellow and sweet whereas the Lodi is greenish in color and tarter in flavor.

Any fresh, flavorful apple is perfect in this apple cake. It’s a great recipe for baking ahead of time and taking to football tailgate parties. Nothing says late August and early fall better than apple cake!