Irish Apple Cake
Traditional Irish apple cake is a moist, dense cake filled with apples and warming spices that pairs perfectly with vanilla custard sauce.
Ingredients
Apple Cake:
- 3 cups cake flour, or all-purpose
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, see note
- ⅛ teaspoon ground clove
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 3-4 large Granny Smith apples, see note
- 2 tablespoons coarse sugar, like demerara or turbinado
Vanilla Custard Sauce:
- 5 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup whole milk
- ½ cup heavy cream, see note
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
Directions
Make the Apple Cake:
- Preheat your oven to 350°F / 180°C. Line and coat a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl add 3 cups cake flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ⅛ teaspoon ground clove, and ¾ cup granulated sugar. Whisk together, then cube and add 6 tablespoons unsalted butter. Use a pastry cutter or your hands to mix the butter into the dry ingredients until only small pieces remain.
- In a small mixing bowl or glass measuring cup, whisk 2 large eggs. Add ¼ cup whole milk and mix again until no visible streaks of egg remain.
- Peel and cut 3-4 large Granny Smith apples into a medium to large dice. I like to go for roughly 1-inch chunks.
- Once chopped, add the apple chunks to the dry ingredients and toss to fully coat.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a silicone spatula to mix until no dry pockets of flour remain. The batter will be sticky and very thick at this point.
- Transfer the batter into the springform pan and use the spatula to even out the top as best as you can. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons coarse sugar over the entire top of the batter and place the springform pan on a baking sheet and place in the center of the oven.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. If the top begins to brown too quickly, feel free to loosely tent with foil. Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes, then you can run a butter knife around the edge and open the springform pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and serve slightly warm or at room temperature, topped with warm vanilla custard sauce, whipped cream, or ice cream.
Make Vanilla Custard Sauce:
- While the cake is cooling, make the custard sauce. Normally it would be served warm, but if you’d rather have it at room temperature or cold, you can do this sooner or ahead of time.
- In a small mixing bowl, add the 5 large egg yolks and ⅓ cup granulated sugar and whisk until the sugar is dissolved and the egg yolks are fully mixed with it. Add 1 cup whole milk and ½ cup heavy cream in a small saucepan set over medium-low heat and gently heat until lightly simmering.
- Slowly pour some of the hot milk into the egg mixture while whisking constantly to temper the eggs. You want to slowly heat the egg yolks without cooking them, so keep whisking. Once the egg yolks are warmed and tempered, pour this mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk.
- Place the saucepan back on the stove over low heat. Whisk constantly until the custard begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon. Add a pinch of salt and 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract and remove from the heat. Keep whisking for another minute or so until the custard begins to cool slightly, then transfer to a creamer pitcher or a glass measuring cup. For an ultra-smooth custard, pour it through a fine mesh strainer when transferring from the saucepan.
- Serve warm over the apple cake or allow it to cool completely. Once cooled, place plastic wrap over it so that it touches the surface of the custard and you can refrigerate it if you wish to serve it cold.
Equipment Used
Notes
1) Springform Pan – I use a springform pan for this cake because it makes it much easier to remove once baked. Since you’re making a finished cake instead of just a layer, using a springform keeps the top from deflating or the toppings from falling off. You could also use an 8-inch springform for a taller cake, but I don’t recommend a 10-inch, or the cake will be too flat and possibly dry.
2) Spices – While most people associate apples with cinnamon, this spice isn’t as heavily used in Ireland and other parts of Europe. For this cake I use nutmeg and a bit of ground clove, but feel free to add some ground cinnamon as well.
3) Apples – In Ireland they would use Bramley apples here, which are amazing for cooking and baking, but not very good raw. Since those can be difficult to find elsewhere, I use Granny Smith as a good substitute. You could also mix these with something like Golden Delicious or Honeycrisp if you wish.
4) Heavy Cream – I use a combination of whole milk and heavy cream for the custard sauce since I’ll typically keep both in stock during holidays and baking seasons. You can also just use one or the other if you only have one on hand.
5) Nutrition Info – The nutritional information above is for the cake only. Since the amount of custard used per slice of cake can vary, or not be used at all, I chose not to include it.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 sliceCalories: 264kcalCarbohydrates: 45gProtein: 5gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 47mgSodium: 135mgPotassium: 113mgFiber: 2gSugar: 21gCalcium: 60mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
