For Your St. Patrick’s Day Pleasure:
Apple Blackberry Cake
Sometimes you just have to eat for the fun of it, and while I cleaned up this recipe for Apple Blackberry Cake, it’s a flour cake. You can substitute gluten free flour and work with the recipe to get the texture right.
My Mother-in-Law was born in Dublin, and when I lived in England, she introduced me to fine Irish baked goods. It was kind of a miracle to me because my family never ate sweets on a regular basis. They were reserved for holidays. But, my Mother-in-Law delighted in her 3:00 p.m. tea.
So, I was hunting around for a St. Patrick’s Day Recipe that reminded me of some of the baking she did for me and found a cake that used honey and Bushmill Irish Whiskey. Old Bushmill recommended this wonderful recipe, developed by http://chindeep.com for a 2012 St. Paddy’s Day Blog Hop. Kudos to chindeep.com and Bushmill’s for sharing this wonderful bit of Ireland with us!
The Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) raw organic butter
- 1 cup raw sugar
- 4 organic eggs eggs
- 3 cups self-rising flour (We are going to try gluten free flour when we make this this week.)
- 2 organic cooking apples, unpeeled, cored, and diced
- 1/2 cup organic blackberries (plus more for garnish) and rosemary sprigs for garnish
- 3-4 organic dessert apples, unpeeled, cored, and sliced
- 3 tablespoons Bee Wild raw honey for glaze
- Bushmills Custard:
- 1 1/4 cups raw organic whole milk
- 1 1/4 cups raw organic cream
- 4 organic egg yolks
- 1/2 cup raw sugar
- 1/4 cup Bushmill’s Whiskey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 9-inch spring form pan.
- Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time, then sift in the flour.
- Stir in the diced apples and blackberries. (Batter will be very thick.)
- Using a rubber spatula, spread batter evenly in pan.
- Arrange the apple slices around the top of the batter.
- Bake until lightly browned, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.
- Cool in the pan.
- Loosen around the edges of the cake and transfer to a serving plate.
- Brush the honey over the top of the cake.
- Garnish with the extra blackberries and sprigs of fresh rosemary.
- For the custard:
- Bring the milk and cream to a boil over medium heat, then turn off the heat.
- Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Slowly pour in the milk/cream mixture, whisking continuously.
- Return to saucepan over low heat and cook until custard is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, about 10-15 minutes.
- Stir in the whiskey.
- To serve, slice the cake and spoon the custard over each slice.
Image courtesy of Heather Homemade.
