Irish Apple Cake

The story

Irish apple cake is a plain farmhouse bake: a soft, sweetened dough wrapped around sliced cooking apples, baked until golden and eaten warm. No one invented it and no original recipe survives. Apples have been grown in Ireland for thousands of years, and County Armagh became known for its orchards. In early Ireland, sour apples were also turned into cider, verjuice and vinegar. Before enclosed ovens were common, the cake could be baked in a bastible, a heavy cast-iron pot with a tight lid set over the fire with embers piled on top; later it went into the range on a tin or enamel plate. The apple most Irish cooks reach for is the Bramley, grown from pips planted by Mary Ann Brailsford in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1809. A Mr Nicholson of Cranagill brought 60 seedlings to County Armagh in 1884. The cake is sometimes called Kerry apple cake. Darina Allen's version in Irish Traditional Cooking is a plate cake of rubbed-in butter dough with a few cloves among the apples, dredged with sugar and served with soft brown sugar and softly whipped cream. Bake it in the afternoon and serve it warm after supper; custard works as well as cream.