Incredible Irish apple cake

 Is there anything that sounds better than a lovely big slice of sweet, light and fluffy apple cake? Actually, yes, there is. How about if that apple cake is smothered with warm custard? This Irish apple cake with custard sauce is absolutely delicious, and is certain to impress your guests – or just yourself!

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 3 cups plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 170g butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 large Granny Smith apples
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar (for sprinkling on top)

For the custard:

• 6 large egg yolks
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla essence

Method

1. Grease and flour a 20cm round springform pan.

2. Preheat the oven to 190C.

3. 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.

4. Cut the butter into the flour using your fingers or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

5. Add the 3/4 cups of sugar to the flour mixture and mix in.

6. Peel the apples and slice them into uniform pieces. This cake works best and gets that ‘chunky apple look’ if the slices are about 1cm wide and then cut into 3 pieces.

7. Toss the apples into the flour mixture and combine them thoroughly.

8. 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.

9. Transfer the dough into the prepared cake pan and flatten the top surface using the back of your spatula.

10. Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the cake.

11. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Test the centre for doneness. The top of the cake should be golden brown. Serve slices with custard sauce.

For the custard sauce:

12. 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. Transfer to jug.

Serve warm or cold over apple cake.