Irish Apple Cake (Císte Úll)

The best recipe to welcome apple season. This tender, moist Irish apple cake is packed with autumn apples, oats and a crunchy brown sugar crust, perfect served with custard.

Irish Apple Cake - known as ‘Císte Úll’ in Irish and often called ‘Kerry Cake’ - is the true way to celebrate the annual autumn apple harvest in Ireland. Once apples are ripe and ready, there’s already a nip in the air and everybody is ready to knock it down a gear for the oncoming winter. This cake uses fresh, autumn apples and just a hint of spice. The shining ingredient is the sour milk - once a common ingredient in Irish cookery before refrigeration - which we’ll copy by souring milk with lemon juice. The sour tang of the milk helps the cake rise through soda action, similar to soda bread, and giving this cake a moist, delicate crumb beneath its crunchy, brown sugar crust - idyllic with hot custard. Let’s go!