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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
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.
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.
(1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, plus more, softened, for pan
(200 g.) granulated sugar
baking powder
ground cinnamon
kosher salt
ground ginger
finely grated fresh nutmeg
ground allspice
(360 g.) plus 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour, divided
large eggs
heavy cream
pure vanilla extract
large Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced into 1/4" pieces
demerara sugar
large egg yolks
(67 g.) granulated sugar
vanilla bean, halved (or 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract)
heavy cream
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