I found this recipe in a number of places listed as “Irish Apple Crumble Cake” though I don’t see anything tremendously Irish about it (just seems like a normal apple coffee cake like cake), but it looked yummy so I decided to make it on the spur of the moment, really.
I should know better by now than to bake something when I am not in a baking mood (and in an overall very cranky mood) and just to make something “for the sake of a holiday”, especially one that I have no real connection to. This was actually the third thing that I attempted to make this morning. The first two were utter failures. They might have been somewhat more “Irish-y” (in that they involved green and shamrocks and the like — ok, more Plastic Paddy maybe [grin] ), but one didn’t even make it to the baking stage and the other fell apart … well, let’s not go into the details. At any rate, I was frustrated and so even this isn’t a success in my mind. Baking is definitely a frame of mind. And tomorrow is another day.
Ingredients
for the cake
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2/3 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 medium peeled and cored cooking apple, 1/2 inch diced
For the crumble topping
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed
a few tablespoons whiskey (optional)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F. Liberally spray an 8-inch spring form pan with baking spray.
In the work bowl of your stand mixer fixed with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until they are incorporated.
By hand, fold in the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until you have a thick cake batter. Stir through the apple and pour the batter into the cake pan. The batter will be thick, so use a spatula to spread across the base of the pan. In a medium work bowl, mix together sugar, flour and butter. Mix with fork until it looks like coarse sand. Sprinkle over cake before baking.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. As it is cooling, drizzle over a little bit of whiskey (either just with a spoon or I have a small spray bottle that I use for misting alcohol) over the top of the cake as it cools (optional). Remove from spring form pan and serve warm or at room temperature.
