The following post is a reprint of a post I made on my old site last year – it was my most popular post, so I’m reprinting it here for your enjoyment.
One of the fun parts about baking for me is exploring my family roots through food. Like many Americans, I have a bit of a ‘Heinz 57’ heritage – a little bit of everything. I’ve done some family history research and 
have found some interesting things – I have relatives that came over on the Mayflower (fully documented, I am a member of the Mayflower Society), which came over from England. I have family that emigrated from Denmark and Germany. My two strongest ties, however are to Ireland (I still carry that family name) and Sweden (I still have family with whom I am in contact there). Since my grandmother and aunts were born in Sweden, I grew up exposed to many of the wonderful foods of that country – in fact, I plan to use them in several blog posts to come (although I can guarantee that Herring Pudding will never grace this blog site – yech!!). That being said, I have no expressions of the Irish side of the family – most of my ancestors died very young and lived under very tough and poor conditions once they came to the US, so they didn’t take much time to record information to pass down the line. So, my list of Irish family recipes is fairly short – zero. I’m very interested in knowing more about what my family may have been eating some 100 years ago when they emigrated – as well as what the Irish people in general like to eat.
I’ve found a number of recipes online that claim Irish heritage or at least popularity, but it can be difficult sometimes to sort out the truth from the other stuff out there in cyberspace. Maybe some of my visitors can recommend some good sites for Irish recipes and history?
In the meantime, as I take a short vacation on the Oregon Coast, I begin looking ahead to the change in seasons to my favorite time of year – Fall. I love the weather, cool, foggy, crisp, clean. When I sense those changes coming, I can’t help but begin thinking of fall cooking – comfort foods – and for me, my favorite Fall ingredient has to be apples. Of course, we can get apples here year-round, but fall is the time when the best of the harvest come in and everyone’s thoughts start to turn to baking with apples.
So, looking at my pile of fresh Granny Smiths, and considering how I might explore some of that Irish 
heritage, I came across a recipe on Joyofbaking.com for an Apple Scone Cake. Now, if the description of this recipe as posted on Joy of Baking is correct, the Apple Scone Cake is one of the most popular desserts made by home bakers in Ireland (can anyone confirm that??). It certainly sounded like an interesting recipe to try – and, for all I could tell, seemed as if it could be a real ‘Irish’ dessert. Why not give it a try? The concept is interesting – it’s not really a ‘cake’ as I would think of it – it’s really more of a cross between a cake and a pie. Imagine apple pie, but instead of the traditionally flaky pie crust, a more ‘cakey’ scone crust instead. Since I’m not yet experienced in the fine art of pie crust, but have successfully made scones, this seemed like a great gateway recipe to my first ever ‘pie’
Overall the results were very good. Having made this, I would probably make the following changes the next time around: a bit more sugar/cinnamon in the apples – I used more apples than the recipe called for, but didn’t add more sugar to account for that change. Second, I would bake it just a bit longer – I like my apples a bit softer, but this was still pretty good. Third, I might add just a few small pats of butter (not margarine) in with the apples. Lastly, I might add just a touch more sugar to the scone base. With all of that being said, you can click here for a copy of the original recipe with no modifications so you can start at the same point as me. This is a hearty and tasty dessert – perfect for a cool fall (or warm summer) evening – I will definitely be making this again. Click here for a copy of the recipe I’ve posted on my site.
Baking in Oregon 