Irish Apple Cake

Being English I don't celebrate St. Patrick's day, our day is St. George's day, which is in April.  However I rarely pass up the opportunity to bake something, so I figured I would join in with the rest of America this year and celebrate St. Patrick's day just a little bit!

This cake is packed full of apples with a crunchy sugary top.  I made my usual custard to serve this with this rather than the one that was with the cake recipe over at  the kitchen mccabe.

Cake
3 cups all purpose flour
6 oz butter
3/4 cup sugar
4 large granny smith apples, peeled and diced
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar, to sprinkle on top of cake

Preheat oven to 375 and grease an 8 inch springform pan.

 Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cloves into a large bowl.

Using your fingertips rub the cold, diced butter into the flour mixture, until it resembles crumbs.

Add the sugar and apples to the mixture and stir together.

In a small bowl, combine the eggs and milk.  Add to the flour mixture and stir together.

Pour cake batter into the cake pan and sprinkle the top with the 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Creme Anglaise
1.5 cups heavy cream
1.5 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
Seeds from 1 plumped Vanilla Bean (vanilla beans plumped in rum for at least 2 weeks)
8 large egg yolks

Pour the cream and milk into a saucepan, and add the sugar. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla beans and add to the milk, then split the vanilla beans in half and add that to the milk also. Whisk the egg yolks in a large bowl and leave near the stove. Place a sieve over a second large bowl.

Heat the cream mixture over medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar, until the mixture is very hot but not boiling. Slowly whisk half of the cream mixture into the yolks. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the crème anglaise is thick enough to coat the spatula. Pour through the sieve to remove the vanilla beans and any cooked egg pieces, leave to cool for 15 minutes.