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My Mum's Irish Apple Cake Recipe
It doesn't get much better than my mum's Irish Apple Cake recipe — authentically Irish with tart Granny Smith apples and a streusel topping.
Prep Time
25 mins
Cook Time
1 hr 25 mins
Total Time
1 hr 30 mins
Servings: 8 people
Course:
Dessert
Cuisine:
Irish
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (3 ¾ oz/105 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (4 oz/115 g) butter (at room temperature)
- ½ cup (4 oz/115 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (4 oz/115 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (¾ oz/21 g) rolled oats
- 2 large eggs
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons (3 oz/85 g) cold butter, cubed
- 1 ¼ cups (6 ¼ oz/177 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅙ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
- 3 medium Granny Smith Apples, peeled and thinly sliced
Notes
- While making the streusel topping, to avoid hand warming up the butter, you can leave out the oats and use a fork to cut the butter into the flour mixture, which helps with even mixing; alternatively, add all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until it looks like coarse bread crumb.
- streusel To get a more complex flavor, combine tart and sweet apple variations to add depth to the taste. Gala apples, Honeycrisp apples, Pink Lady apples, or even a small portion of pears or peaches will work well.
- To suit personal preferences, you can experiment with a dash of nutmeg, cloves, allspice, or cardamom for an extra layer of flavor. My Homemade Mixed Spice or Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice will be lovely, too.
- Depending on personal preferences, you can experiment with adjusting the sugar levels or use sugar substitutes from my chart in both the cake batter and the streusel to achieve the desired level of sweetness. But note that sugar-free sugar substitutes can't caramelize so the streusel topping may not be so crispy.
- Replace part of the granulated sugar with brown sugar will add a caramel tone.
- For extra crunch and butty flavors, you can add slivered almonds, pinenuts, chopped toasted pecans, walnuts, or macadamia nuts.
- I think the best option for this apple cake is a 9-inch springform pan. Because it's a big cake and rises a lot after baking. A springform pan will make removing the cake from the tin possible and so much easier than a normal solid-bottom cake pan.