You may have noticed my propensity for baking and preparing desserts. If not, let me refresh your memory :D I'll take any opportunity to make something nice, especially when there's people there to eat it and this year's St. Patrick's Day brought a small hungry army to the table, which I was quite grateful for, to be honest. Now, I'd made a cheesecake as well, which I'll tell you about sometime, but I wasn't satisfied. I've made enough cheesecakes for it to be fairly run-of-the-mill. I wanted a challenge.
And after a brief look around the Internet, I settled on... the Irish Apple Cake. Full disclosure, I used this recipe as reference. Now, when I'm making dessert, I tend to be very monomaniacal in that I favor chocolate - very dark, and lots of it. But I wanted to step out of that comfort zone a bit, and since it is traditional, I figured who am I to challenge it?
So off we went.
What you'll need:
Right, you'll be making something called the "streusel" first, which is really just a crumble topping, so let's talk a bit about that. I followed the initial recipe, but it turned out to be way too little for my cake. Luckily, it's a very easy thing to prepare, so I made another batch before bunging the whole thing into the oven. I'll give you the quantities I ended up using - the original recipe was about half.
- 200 g cold butter, chopped into cubes;
- 220 g flour;
- 200 g brown sugar;
- 50 g rolled oats;
- pinch of salt (ever-popular).
Streusel is very easy to make, just combine the dry ingredients until they're well-mixed, then use your fingers or a fork to mash the butter into it until it forms a crumbly looking thing. The first batch (pictured) turned out very, well, uniform, looking more like a quiche crust than a crumble, but I didn't know that at the time. Second time around,, it looked like this:
And apparently that's what the recipe calls for.
Don't worry if you end up needing more streusel, as it's easy to make more. Also, if you make too much, it's really damn addictive to just eat as is. Not that I'm talking from experience. I just, you know, hear things.
Next on.
We're doing the cake itself.
- 120 g butter (at room temp, this time);
- 100-ish g brown sugar;
- 3 medium-sized eggs;
- vanilla extract;
- 250 g flour (the original recipe only uses about 175, but for me that turned out to be really little, so ended up using more. I'd say use about 175-200g first, then add more progressively as you see fit);
- a little milk (recipe says 3 tbsp, if you wanna measure that, go ahead. I used almond and it turned out quite lovely, though the original recipe calls for whole);
- baking powder and a dash of salt;
- generous amounts of cinnamon (I'm a big cinnamon fan, so ended up using a few tablespoons);
- 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced.
Another very easy recipe. Oh, also, set the oven to preheat at about 180C while you're doing this. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a larger bowl, soften the butter and sugar together until it's all fluffy - don't taste it. It's hard to put down. Again.
Then add the eggs, one at a time and beat/stir well. Add the vanilla, then fold in the dry stuff together with the milk and mix until the batter is looking smooth. Lo and behold:
I told you, I had to add a lot more flour, so make any adjustments necessary here. You want the batter to be pretty thick. Next, dump it into your cake tin (I lined mine with baking paper, 'cause I don't trust 'em). Spread evenly, then layer the apple slices, like this:
You may have to overlap the apples, or if you end up with too-too many, even eat a couple. I know. Last but not least, add the streusel on top of the apples, pressing it down gently with the palm of your hand or a fork. It should look like in the picture I added earlier.
Put it into the oven and keep watch. The original recipe calls for 65-75 minutes of baking at 180C. Personally, I found that to be way too much and took mine out after about 50-55 minutes, as the top was golden-brown and I didn't wanna burn it.
Make sure to check regularly after the 35 minute mark, would be my advice.
Finally, dust with powdered sugar, cinnamon or a mix of both, and serve at room temperature or cold. :)
It may not be chocolate, but I gotta say, it's a hell of a dessert. Enjoy :)
