For the cake:
- 3 cups All-purpose flour
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- ⅛ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp ground Cloves
- ¼ tsp ground Nutmeg
- 6 oz Buttercold is fine
- ¾ cup Sugar
- 4 large Granny Smith applespeeled and cut into ¼ inch chunks
- 2 Eggs
- ¾ cup Milk
- 2 tbsp Sugarfor sprinkling on top of cake
For the custard:
- 6 large Egg yolks
- 6 tbsp Sugar
- 1½ cups Whole milk
- 1½ tsp Vanilla
Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce
Does it get more Irish than this Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce? This recipe is a simple cake that my Irish grandmother used to make on St Patrick’s Day each year. She would make her signature homemade custard sauce which we absolutely adored as kids. It was such a treat. And now I can finally share the recipe with you.
Start by making the apple cake which is a pretty standard cake batter which incorporates chunks of apple. To make the custard sauce, whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl while milk comes to a boil in a medium saucepan.The hardest part when making custard is whisking the hot milk into the egg/sugar mixture without scrambling the eggs. My tip is to take it very slow! Once combined, return the mixture to the saucepan and stir until the sauce thickens.
To make Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce, you will need the following ingredients:
Steps to make Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce
1 | Heat the oven and prepare a pan | |
Preheat the oven to 375 °F. Grease and line an 8 or 9 inch springform pan. | ||
2 | Sift dry ingredients | 1 |
Sift 3 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, ⅛ teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon each of ground cloves and nutmeg into a very large mixing bowl. | ||
3 | Cut in butter | 2 |
Cut 6 ounces of butter into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter or your fingers until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. | ||
4 | MIx in sugar | 1 |
Add ¾ cup of sugar to the crumb mixture and stir well. | ||
5 | Add apple chunks | 2 |
Fold the apple chunks into the flour and sugar mixture until fully combined. | ||
6 | Combine milk and eggs and add to flour mixture | 2 |
Beat 2 eggs and ¾ cup of milk together in a separate bowl. Pour the egg mixture into the flour and apples and mix until just combined. The batter will resemble a thick dough-like mixture. | ||
7 | Transfer the cake mixture to the pan | 1 |
Transfer the cake mixture to the prepared baking pan and flatten the top using a spatula. Sprinkle the top with 2 tablespoons of sugar. | ||
8 | Bake | 50 |
Bake for 45-50 minutes until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. | ||
9 | Make the custard sauce | 5 |
Bring 1½ cups of milk just to a boil in a small saucepan. Whisk 6 large egg yolks in a bowl with 6 tablespoons of sugar for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is pale yellow. Gradually whisk the hot milk into the egg mixture. | ||
10 | Thicken the sauce | 5 |
Return the mixture to the saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat for about 4 minutes, until the custard sauce thickens. When the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, stir in 1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla. Transfer the sauce to a bowl or serving jug. | ||
11 | Serve | |
Serve the cake with a warm or cold custard sauce poured over. | ||
Recipe Reviews
Really excited to bake this for my co-workers this week, they are going to love it so much and i'll be able to impress everyone with my mad baking skills,lol!
Took me a while to get this cake right, the first try it crumbled up way too easy and the second try it was undercooked but the third was the winner, it was really easy to make after i figured out what i was doing wrong, thx.
Bookmarked this page, very satisfied with this dessert.
Thanks for sharing this, baked it for st.patricks day party at my friends place, it was devoured in 5 minutes.
Had this for dessert after making sirloin strips and wine, me and the hubby were happy.
Kids enjoyed this apple cake more than apple pie, going to be baking this a lot more often for sure now.
If you're not a fan of apples, don't go for this instead try the cherry cheesecakes, but if you love apples as much as I do [eating them daily] this cake it the one for you.
It was arlight but I much prefer the baileys poke cake to this, has a lot more flavour.
Great recipe, thanks so much will be making it again.
Is it just me or is custard not enough? This was tasty but anyone have any recommendations for what i could add with it?
My favorite Irish cake i've ever made in my own household, everyone loved it!
This was heaven on earth, the flavours and everything were perfectly combined, can't get over how delightful this was.
Turned out really dry for me so i drizzled some caramel dressing on it instead of custard since i'm not a fan of custard,vyborne!!
Going to be making this a lot since it's so simple and it taste so good, delicious apple cake with custard.
Wish I could clone this so I wouldn't have to spend the time making it and spend more time eating it..lol.
Easy to bake this and the ingriedents are very affordable, couldn't ask for a better recipe.
Instead of apple i used a bunch of different berries to make this cake because I wanted to get a bit creative, turned out brilliant.
Delicious! Wouldn't change a single thing about this apple cake.
Heavenly dessert and it's so easy to bake it, I'm really satisfied with how delicious it turned out.
WOW just wow, incredibley delicious i'm willing to get fat on this cake LOL!
I added some whipped cream to the top of the cake along with the custard sauce to make it really sweet, i have a horrible sweet tooth and the extra whipped cream really brought this cake to life.
Kinda dry and I used a lot less flour since I wanted to make a small version of the cake.
Normally I don't like baking because its always a hassel but this was really easy to make, I did this cake and the grapefruit poppy one for a friends brunch.
Would recommend if you're a fan of slightly dry cake, but mine was all crumbly so kinda disappointed, the taste was good though just not the apperance.
Super delicious and I'm totally going to be baking this again, the apple cake is underrated for sure, its so much better than any cheesecake or chocolate cake because you can have it with anything.
I added some cinnamon to mine and it was wonderful, best apple cake recipe, thx.
Made this for my grandmother on St pattys day and added some frosting to it, she loved it a bunch so i'm going to make it for her again.
I used caramel as dressing for this cake and had some vanilla icecream on the side, was very good.
Great Irish apple cake just like the blueberry queso cake. it has an amazing taste and it's something I'd love to make again.
My kids adore this cake, it's the only way I get them to eat some fruits instead of candy and it's so easy to bake, thanks for sharing this.
I didn't have any nutmeg cause i'm not sure where to find it where I live, does anyone have any idea on what I can use to replace it?
Best dessert EVEEERR!! Super pleased with how yummy this cake was very good with some tea and amazing for the morning since it's so filling!
Long wait time for this but it was good, not unhappy with it just wish there was a way to make it bake faster.
I would recommend this for everyone who is an apple pie lover or just an apple lover in general, this Irish cake does a lot of justice!!
Well done! Thanks for sharing recipe!
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