Apple cake is a traditional Irish dessert, as apples were plentiful during autumn and it was easily made in a bastible. Variations of the recipe are often called “Irish Apple Cake” or “Kerry Apple Cake.” Other versions use potato in the pastry, and the combination of apples and potatoes can be seen frequently in older cookbooks. There are two recipes below: one is a more modern take, with a streusel topping, and the second a traditional version that would have been made in a bastible, and more like a scone in texture. Both are delicious!
Apples in Ireland
Historically, apples, in season from late August to December, are the most significant fruit native to Ireland. Aballgort, the word for orchard, literally means “apple field.” Crab apples (Malus sylvestris), also called wild apples (crann fia-úll), grow in hedgerows and woodland and would have been available to Mesolithic and Neolithic settlers. Pips and core fragments dating to this era were found in Co. Meath and in Poulnabrone, Co. Clare. Apple fragments have also been found at Viking settlements in Waterford and Dublin.
Crab apples were among the ‘seven nobles of the wood’ (airig fedo). In Brehon Law, specifically the 8th-century text Bretha Comaithchesa, these ‘Chieftain Trees’ were oak, ash, hazel, holly, wild apple, yew, and Scots pine, and the fine for damaging one was two and a half cows. The penalty for damaging a sacred (nemed) apple tree was the same as any harm inflicted upon someone of the poet/historian class, or ánruth-grade. Bechbretha, a 7th-century law tract, goes into particulars, discussing who had the rights to crab apple trees on common land.
Apples feature heavily in pre-Christian Ireland, especially since crab apple trees are wonderful hosts to mistletoe, which was considered sacred. Apples also play a large part in the 12th-century texts “Aislinge Meic Con Glinne,” where only a bushel satisfied the appetite of a chieftain, and the Echtra Condla, in which the hero is sustained for weeks by a single magical fruit. Apples make up one of Cú Chulainn’s legendary feats.
In Christian Ireland, the theme of sour apples transformed into sweet is seen in Irish hagiographies such as that of Saint Columba.
Saint Brigid gives away baskets of apples and sloes to the poor in Bethu Brigte. This 9th-century text is helpful as it refers to these apples as ubla cumra, sweet apples, which seem to have been reserved for the upper classes, as opposed to an 8th-century reference to fiaduball, wild apples. These sweet apples may have been samples from Britain and Europe that had been grafted onto existing trees. Saint Patrick is believed to have planted an apple tree at Ceangoba in Co. Armagh, the “Orchard County”, which now produces 35 million Bramley apples each year.
Apples were a major part of the early diet, especially when no other fruit was available as they kept well when sliced and dried. They featured in monastic life, as a 9th century text stated that a penitent could eat apples ‘if they be large, five or six of them are sufficient, but if they be small, twelve of them are sufficient.’ Monks were also involved in the production of mead and cider, to which crab apples lend themselves particularly well.
In her research for Ireland’s Green Larder, Margaret Hickey found that in 1903 the English government issued grants to establish British apple varieties in Irish orchards, which can still be found on older estates today. Concern for native apples was raised by JGD “Keith” Lamb with the publication of his 1949 thesis “The Apple in Ireland: Its History and Varieties.” The Irish Seedsavers Association and its founder Anita Hayes sought to find the cultivars mentioned in his works in the early 1990s, which led to the creation of the Lamb-Clarke Collection at University College, Dublin in 1997. Seedsavers features 180 varieties, 70 of Irish origin. 50 native cultivars are still missing.
As of 2017, 95% of apples in Ireland were imported, with Bramley Seedlings (Malus domestica), a type of cooking apple, being the most popular. Other varieties of note are the Irish Peach, Jonagored, Elstar, and Kerry Pippin. Apart from Armagh, Limerick, south Tipperary, and parts of Ulster are known for apple production.
Folklore
Apple cake and apple pie featured during Michaelmas, Halloween, and Christmas, when the fruit was plentiful. A form of apple bobbing, called “snap-apple,” was played by children on Hallow Eve, who either “ducked” for them in water or tried to catch one in their teeth as it was swung from the ceiling.
A popular story went like this: two boys stole a few bags of apples and went into a graveyard to divide them. Two apples fell out by the gate. Two other boys walked by, and heard the thieves haggling over their loot and thought it was God and the Devil dividing souls, with the devil getting an equal share. Eventually, they overheard one ask, “what about the two at the gate?” to which the frightened eavesdroppers either immediately fainted or sprinted home.
Apple Cake Recipe #1 (Streusel)
This first version has three layers: cake, apple, and streusel, and is more in line with what our sense of a “cake” is. I’ve adapted this recipe from The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook, which calls for a 9-inch springform pan. I halved the cake and streusel so that it can be made in a deep 6-inch, 8-inch, or shallow 9-inch pan – however, if you do have a springform, you can double everything below for one very large cake. I also adjusted the seasoning to reflect the traditional spice, which is cloves, but you can add cinnamon and even 1/8 tsp ginger, nutmeg and allspice if it suits your taste.
**TO MAKE EITHER CAKE VEGAN: Substitute plant-based butter and milk, and a flax egg in the batter (1 tbs flax seed + 2 tbs water). Instead of using an egg to glaze, you can use plant-based milk.
INGREDIENTS
CAKE
1 large cooking apple
½ cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup (½ stick) salted butter (if unsalted, add ⅛ teaspoon salt)
¼ cup + ½ tbs superfine sugar (you can use granulated, and if you have a food processor whiz it in there for a few seconds)
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
STREUSEL
½ cup flour
3 tablespoons butter
¼ cup sugar
METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 and grease whichever pan you choose.
2. For the streusel topping, sift flour and rub in the butter until it resembles bread crumbs. Stir in sugar.
3. Peel, core and thinly slice apples. For cake, sift the baking powder and flour into a bowl, then add salt, cloves, and baking powder. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the egg, alternating with the flour mixture, then fold in remaining flour mixture with milk
4. Pour batter into pan, cover with apples and sprinkle streusel over top evenly. Bake for about an hour, or until browned and firm. Cool before removing from pan.
Apple Cake Recipe #2 (Traditional)
This recipe is from Darina Allen’s Irish Traditional Cooking, and the result is quite different from American apple cakes. The texture is much more dense, but the flavor is lovely. This would have been made in a bastible. It’s also very similar to that described in the National Folklore Collection from Corcaghan, Co. Monaghan: “Apple cake is made with flour, salt, soda, sweetmilk, and plenty of sugar. The mixture is beaten up well. It is made in the form of a pancake. After that you peel the apples and slice them. You put the pancake in the oven and spread the apples over it and cover it and bake it.” (NFCS 0953:267)
INGREDIENTS
2 cups flour
⅓ teaspoon baking powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
⅔ cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
½ to ⅔ cup milk, dairy or plant-based
1 to 2 cooking apples
2 or 3 cloves (optional – I used ½ tsp ground cloves)
optional: beaten egg to glaze
METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.
2. Sieve flour and baking powder in a bowl. Rub in butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add ½ cup sugar, then make a well in center and mix egg and milk until it forms a dough.
4. Divide in half. Pat out one half to cover the bottom of a greased oven-safe dish.
5. Peel, core, and chop apples. Place on top of dough with cloves if using, then sprinkle sugar over depending on sweetness of apples.
6. Although sticky, roll out or place remaining dough on top of the apples as best as you can.
7. Pinch top and bottom dough layers together and cut a slit in the top. Brush with egg wash and bake for about 40 minutes, until golden and cooked through.
cleite agus cnámh 