Irish Apple Cake

Can I be totally frank? It’s time to think outside of the pie dish when it comes to apple desserts. I’m here to make the case for Irish apple cake being the top-dog apple dessert that always brings a twinkle to my eye (mostly due to that vanilla custard sauce, TBH). It’s almost like your favorite coffee cake merged with an apple crisp, with a tender crumb and plenty of jammy apples throughout. Filled with warming spices, and topped with a sugar topping for added texture, this classic Irish apple cake is the best gift you can give yourself this St. Patrick’s Day.

While the custard sauce isn’t totally necessary, it's traditional, super easy, and ridiculously delicious. The simple vanilla custard sauce adds a rich component to this traditional apple cake; as far as I’m concerned, you can leave the custard off for a breakfast you’ll look forward to all week, or top with the rich vanilla sauce to give this cake an extra-sweet upgrade for any other time during the week.

What People Are Saying:
“Giving this a 5 star because I would have done a face-plant while it was still baking it smelled so good!” - pam1468

“Made it for my book club tonight, and it was delicious. Everyone raved about it, and the custard was amazing. Will make again.” - fai6953

How To Make Irish Apple Cake

INGREDIENTS

• All-Purpose Flour: A cooking and baking MVP due to its versatility alone, all-purpose flour adds equal parts tenderness and structure to our Irish apple cake.
• Granny Smith Apples: I recommend using Granny Smith apples here. Their slightly tart flavor balances out the sweetness of this cake, and their firm, crisp texture helps them hold their shape while baking.
• Spices: Where there are apples, it’s likely you’ll see the fruit’s spicy BFFs, so I kept things classic with a blend of spicy cinnamon and ginger, and warming nutmeg and allspice.
• Granulated Sugar & Demerara Sugar: Granulated sugar is my everyday sugar for all manner of recipes, especially something as classic as a cake, while I love the added pop of sweetness and crunch of demerara for topping. If you’re new to using demerara sugar, it’s a variety of sugar that is minimally processed and features larger, deliciously crackly crystals that have hints of molasses flavor. If you don’t have any handy, feel free to use turbinado sugar or light brown sugar in a pinch.
• Butter: Keeping our butter cold will be instrumental when starting to incorporate our dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Why cold butter? Well, cold butter won’t melt until put in the oven and allows for steam to build and a tender crumb to form.
• Eggs: Key to binding and adding that all-important lift to baked goods, eggs also add just the right amount of of moisture to this Irish apple cake and their yolks are the backbone of our custard sauce.
• Pure Vanilla Extract & Vanilla Bean: Whenever possible, opt for pure vanilla extract—it lacks the unnecessary additives that cloud the the vanilla flavoring. Here I used not only pure vanilla extract for the cake batter, but also vanilla bean for spiking our custard sauce. No vanilla beans on hand? Feel free to use the pure vanilla extract in the sauce as well.
• Heavy Cream: For my apple cake recipe, there’s no shying away from the decadence. Both the cake batter and our vanilla custard get a solid glug of heavy cream for added richness.
  

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

To start, we'll preheat the oven to 350° and prepare our cake pan—I'm especially partial to springform pans as it means little-to-no drama when it comes to cake removal time. Once you butter a 9" springform pan and line the sides and bottom with parchment, we'll get to mixing our batter.

In a medium bowl, whisk together 3 cups flour, baking powder, salt, spices, and sugar. Then, add the cubed, cold butter and incorporate with your hands until you have no large pieces left and the mixture resembles sand.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, heavy cream, and vanilla. Add the mixture to dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until just combined.

Next, toss sliced apples with remaining 3 Tbsp. flour until evenly coated, then fold into the batter. Transfer the cake batter to the prepared springform pan and sprinkle evenly all over with demerara sugar.

Bake the cake until the apples are very tender and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, which will take about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Let the cake cool completely in the pan before removing.

While the cake cools, we’ll make our vanilla custard sauce. In a heatproof bowl, whisk the sugar and yolks until lightened in color, which will take about 6 minutes. Then, in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat, scrape in the vanilla seeds, throw in the pod, and pour the heavy cream over. (If you're using vanilla extract, add once the custard is removed from heat.) Cook, watching carefully, until just bubbling. Remove it from heat, and whisk a few tablespoons of the hot cream into the sugar-yolk mixture to temper it. Gradually whisk in the remaining hot cream.

Pour everything back into the pot. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until just thickened (do not boil!)—check the consistency by dipping a wooden spoon in, then running a finger along the back; the streak should stay intact.

Immediately remove the custard sauce from heat and strain it through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.

Let cool, then serve the sauce over the slices of apple cake.

Recipe Tips

• The best apples for an Irish apple cake: While I opt for Granny Smith apples for this cake, any lightly tart, firm apple will work well, such as Pink Lady, Jonagold, and Honeycrisp varieties. Looking for more ways to use apples? Consult our apple guide for a rundown on the various types and when to use them.
• Whisk your dry ingredients first: While it’s so tempting to mix the ingredients (wet and dry) all together at once and call it a day, whisking the dry ingredients first is key to making sure the cold butter gets incorporated properly and the cake becomes fluffy.
• How to serve Irish apple cake: I love to serve this cake with a drizzle of custard sauce, but that isn’t your only option. Serve it plain, or consider topping it with the streusel topping we use in our apple coffee cake.
  

Storage

Store any leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for 4 to 5 days. Microwave a slice when you’re ready to eat, and enjoy it all week long.