Hello Spring and a Recipe

Our first few days of spring have been cold ones -- 26° F yesterday morning and only in the 40's throughout the day.  Brrrr!  Things are looking green and flowers are blooming, but it's still cold.  However, if our weather forecast is to be believed, the temps. will reach 80° on Friday.  Seriously?!  Yesterday, while talking with my mom, I reminded her it was the first day of spring, and "Friday is the first day of summer," I said.  😁  Welcome to North Carolina.   
Did you have a fun St. Patrick's Day?  We ate at Hal's parents' house on Friday evening; we had corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and carrots, rye bread, and an Irish apple cake I made for dessert.  Have you seen this recipe?  It's all over the internet, and I finally decided to try it.  I'm sharing the recipe with you, and if you like apples, it would be good any time of the year, not just for St. Patrick's Day.   

    

               

See this pile of apples?  I thought this would be plenty, but they shrunk way down while baking, and next time, I'll add another apple.  Hopefully, I can fit them in the pan.  The cake batter is underneath the apples.  

      

Here it is after I added the streusel topping,

   

   

and after baking.

      

      

Yesterday, I decided to have apple cake for afternoon tea.  😊   

         

   

My mom gave me this sweet teapot for Christmas 2021; she came upon it while browsing in an antique mall near her home.  I thought it looked just right with the mismatched shamrock cups and saucers. 

   

   

For those of you (like me) who love china, the teacups are Belleek Shamrock,

             

   

   

and Aynsley Shamrock.

      

      

I had thought to use the apple cake recipe in this Irish Pub cookbook, which I bought at Barnes & Noble several years ago.  In the end, I used this recipe from Gemma Stafford at Bigger Bolder Baking. I made a few changes; I used 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon instead of a whole teaspoon.  I only used two Granny Smith apples instead of three, and that was a mistake; next time I will use three apples.  They shrunk a lot in the baking process, and the cake just didn't have enough apples.  Also, I used KerryGold Irish butter, which we thought was quite good. We found it at our local Costco, so it's pretty easy to find in the U.S. 

   

   

This cook's verdict on the Irish Apple Cake is that it needed more apples, and that was my fault for not following the recipe.  We thought everything else about it was quite good.  It tastes the best warmed in the microwave and topped with vanilla ice cream.  Yum!  Most of the recipes I saw recommended serving this cake with Creme Anglaise.  I love Creme Anglaise, but I've never tried to make it.  Since the recipe calls for six egg yolks, and considering the price of eggs right now, I decided to use ice cream instead. 😏  Also, most of the recipes recommend using a springform pan, but I used a regular, 

nine-inch cake pan.  I sprayed with cooking spray, lined with parchment paper, and the cake was a breeze to get out of the pan.   

   

Have you ever made an Irish apple cake?  Let me know if you try this; I'd love to hear what you think of it.  Thank you for stopping by here today.  I think I've only put up a post once a month since before Christmas, yet folks are still visiting.  Your interest and support mean a lot to me -- thank you so very much!!  Have a great day!  

   

All the best,