The weather was gorgeous outside today. Sunny, nearly 70 degrees, no wind – and my kids played outside. We went for a walk. We didn’t wear jackets, and we didn’t come in until almost bedtime. These things, along with the fact that college basketball tournaments are on TV and St. Patrick’s Day is a mere three days away can really only mean one thing – SPRING IS HERE!
Well, almost. Still a week or so away but whatever.
Spring is my absolute most favorite time of year, and St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect excuse to celebrate. Plus, I really like Irish food. {Have you ever had colcannon? Fab.}
I’ve definitely shared a lot of St. Pat’s-inspired desserts on this blog but most of them involve chocolate and I wanted to do something a little different today. I’ve had this apple cake in my bookmark list for ages, so when I realized I had an abundance of apples hanging around, it finally happened.
Then, Irish Whiskey IN the cake happened. And then, it happened again. This time, in the form of Irish Whiskey Caramel Sauce.
So yeah – a perfectly innocent little apple cake + orange zest and Irish Whiskey + boozy caramel sauce? That equals me, faceplanted into a piece of cake right after it came out of the oven. It was all I could do to snap a couple of pictures for you…
So, the alcohol bakes off – no need to worry about that – but the warm, spicy flavors of the whiskey are left behind. This is kind of like bread pudding, especially when you pour extra caramel sauce over the top. Yes – you are going to pour warm caramel sauce over the top of your cake. Trust me, I know things.
You also have some decisions to make. If you like baked apples, leave the apples in pretty big chunks (like 3/4-inch size). If you don’t, feel free to dice the apples into smaller pieces. If you like lots of nuts, add more. You can even stir them into the batter with the apples if you like.
Don’t over bake it. It’s meant to be soft and moist – mine baked for 1 hour and 20 minutes and it was just right. Use a tube pan (like the pans that angel-food cakes are baked in) and don’t use a bundt pan or you may never get it out in once piece. You can probably bake it in a 9×13 pan, just take the bake time down significantly and use a cake-tester to test for done-ness.
And, if you decide that you don’t want a boozy cake, just replace the whiskey in the cake with orange juice, and leave it out of the caramel sauce and replace it with two teaspoons of vanilla.
Either way, hope you enjoy.
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♥erin
- 6 apples, peeled, cored & chopped
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 and ¾ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup Irish whiskey (or orange juice)
- ⅛ cup fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 Tablespoon orange zest
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 teaspoons vanilla
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- ⅓ cup Irish whisky such as Jameson or Bushmills
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
- Prepare a tube pan with butter and flour or a generous amount of cooking spray. Set aside.
- Peel, core & chop apples. Sprinkle with ½ cup of sugar and 3 teaspoons cinnamon, and set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In another bowl, combine sugar, oil, whiskey, orange juice, vanilla and orange zest.
- Pour wet ingredients in to dry ingredients, and stir to combine. (I used a hand mixer.)
- Add eggs one at a time, beating each one to incorporate.
- Pour half of the batter into the bottom of the tube pan, then top with half of the apples.
- Pour the rest of the batter into the pan, and top with the rest of the apples, including any juice.
- Top with chopped walnuts.
- Bake for 75-90 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out mostly clean. Do not overbake.
- Cool in pan for 20 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the pan and remove to a wire rack. Prepare caramel sauce.
- Heat sugar and water in a large heavy skillet over medium heat and cook, swirling skillet occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is a dark amber.
- Add whiskey and carefully ignite with a kitchen match (use caution: whiskey will ignite in a ball of flame). When flame dies out stir in cream and bring to a boil (don't worry if the caramel seizes -- just stir until the sauce is recombined).
- Boil until liquid is reduced by ⅓, then remove from heat and whisk in butter.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Pour caramel over the top of the apple cake, and serve warm.
- Enjoy!
Wow — this looks amazing! And it was so nice to have the booze substitutions (though I will gladly add it in when I try this cake out!) Thanks for sharing!
DO NOT MAKE THE CARAMEL SAUCE. I almost burnt my house down the alcohol caught on fire and make more than just a small flame ball. The cake itself was good but stay away from the sauce.
I’m sorry to hear you had trouble with the sauce. You always have to be extra careful when cooking with alcohol, but if you take the proper precautions and go slowly, you should be ok. I’ve made this sauce quite a few times now, and you’re right, sometimes the flare is bigger than others, but you just have to take it slow and keep your heat low.
Thanks for reading and glad you liked the cake!
Baked this one with my hubby. Turned out great.. that whisky caramel sauce the best!!! and with coffeee yummiee!!!
This little baby right here is the bomb…my entire family (immediate and extended) love it! poppprincess2@gmail.com
think I’ll be baking this one for the family reunion this week-end…..hmmmm good!
The cake recipe was perfect for St Patty’s! I made two versions: 1 Non-Alcoholic (i.e. Unleaded) for church lunch (use OJ in cake and skip Whiskey step altogether in caramel sauce) and an Alcoholic version for a St Patty’s party. Used Jameson Irish Whiskey- flavors were not overwhelmingly alcoholic but you could tell it was the “fully-leaded” version. 🙂 I have to mention that every last crumb of this cake went BOTH times! It was very moist and Irish in style (somewhere between a sweet bread and a cake).
IMPORTANT TIP: When making the Caramel sauce: When cooking over medium heat, use a small-medium sized heavy bottom pot instead of a skillet and ADD an extra Tbsp of Water AND a squirt of LEMON JUICE! The lemon juice is so critical!!! When I made it the way the directions said it made a sticky “rock candy” that I had to scrub off my pot. I looked up making caramel and chefs ALWAYS recommend adding lemon juice to prevent this. Also, with using 1 Cup of sugar as the directions say, using 3 Tbsp of Water (and a little more patience) yielded a great caramel. As for lighting the whiskey on fire, just stand back when you do it and then lift the pot off the stove if you want the flame to go out sooner. If you’re concerned about lighting the kitchen on fire, remember that fire needs oxygen to burn and just keep a lid to the pot nearby to cover it in a jiffy. A silicone lid like the ones they sell at BB&B works well too: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/Charles-Viancin-reg-Dahlia-trade-Silicone-Lid/3250250?Keyword=silicon+lid
Excellent cake recipe overall- one of the most delicious I’ve ever made!
Hi, Can I substitute the tube pan for a normal cake pan or will this ruin the cooking?
What about making the cake in muffins trays?