The Kitchen McCabe's Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce

Here is the last recipe I tried for St. Patrick's Day; Irish Apple Cake. Don't her pictures just make it look divine?!

You can find the original recipe here:

http://thekitchenmccabe.com/2014/03/07/irish-apple-cake-with-custard-sauce/

This cake, while yummy, is also not really packed full of flavor. I think I would describe it as delicate. You have to be very careful with the eggs when making the custard sauce, so I recommend a double-boiler. We found that the cake was super yummy topped with caramel sauce, whipped cream, and just a light dusting of cinnamon sugar. I also thought about adding some kind of Irish cream flavor to the whipped cream.

Fresh out of the oven, it had this wonderful crunchy top, which both Scott and I LOVED! But even after an hour or so cooling, the cake hadn't completely cooled off before bedtime when I put the cover over it. The resulting steam completely softened the crust of the cake. While still tasty, was just not as nice as those first slices has been, so be warned!

Also, because the cake was so delicate, I am tempted to use a more sour apple than the golden delicious suggested in the recipe (perhaps the Granny Smith also suggested) and maybe add some more spices like cinnamon. Just ideas for next time that I want to document. I also used decorative sugar crystals instead of just regular sugar on the top and I LOVED that. They are bigger, chunkier and crunchier like what you see on muffin tops sometimes.

Here you go!

Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce

Serves: Serves 12

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:

• 3 C. Flour
• 2 t. Baking Powder
• ⅛ t. Salt
• ¼ t. Cloves, ground
• ¼ t. Nutmeg, ground
• 6 oz. Butter, (cold is fine)
• ¾ C. Sugar
• 4 large Granny Smith apples(I used golden delicious to great effect)
• 2 Eggs
• ¾ C. Milk
• 2 T. Sugar(for sprinkling on top of cake)

• FOR THE CUSTARD:
• 6 large Egg Yolks
• 6 T. Sugar
• 1½ C. Whole Milk
• 1½ t. Vanilla

Instructions

1. FOR THE CAKE:
2. Grease and flour an 8" or 9" round springform pan. Using an 8" pan will give you a taller cake.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cloves and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. Make sure the bowl is very large to allow room for the apples to be folded in. No joke here!
5. Cut the butter into the flour using your fingers or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
6. Add the ¾ C. sugar to the flour mixture and mix in.
7. Peel the apples and slice them into uniform pieces. This cake works best and gets that 'chunky apple look' if the slices are about ¼" wide and then cut into 3 pieces.
8. Toss the apples into the flour mixture and combine them thoroughly.
9. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. Add to the apples and flour and mix in with a large spatula until just combined. Batter will be thick and dough-like.
10. Transfer the dough into the prepared cake pan and flatten the top surface using the back of your spatula.
11. Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the cake.
12. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Test the center for doneness. The top of the cake should be golden brown. Serve slices with custard sauce.
13. FOR THE CUSTARD SAUCE:
14. *note that this sauce is not a thick, pudding like sauce. It should have a pour-able, just thickened consistency when done.
15. Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale yellow, 2-3 minutes. Place the milk in a medium saucepan and bring just to a boil. Slowly whisk the hot milk into the egg/sugar mixture. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and stir over medium heat until custard thickens, about 4 minutes. Custard should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Mix in the vanilla. Transfer to bowl or serving saucer.
16. Serve warm or cold over apple cake.