Orange&Lemon Polenta&Almond Cake

I think we go through a bag of lemons every weekend.I use hem for everything- with my tea, instead of vinegar, with salads, with main dishes, with salmon... to wash my hair... all sort of uses. Today I added one more - plenty of lemon in a cake.
It is quite a heavy treat, more like a desert, as it contains plenty of butter and almonds. To make it more digestible I sprinkle it generously with lots of lemon juice before eating. Not only it taste good but smells heavenly!
Orange&Lemon Polenta&Almond Cake


Ingredients:

CAKE:
200g soft unsalted butter;
200g light brown caster sugar;
grated rind of 1 lemon and 1 orange + juice of lemon;
3 eggs;
140g ground almonds;
100g quick-cook polenta [course corn flour];
1 tsp bicarbonate soda;

SYRUP:
juice of 1 orange & 1 lemon;
50g of sugar;

1. Preheat the oven to 180C [gas mark 4]. Line 20cm round dip cake tin with baking paper.
2. Beat butter with sugar until pale and fluffy [about 5 minutes].
3. In a separate bowl beat eggs.
4. To the sugar-butter mixture start adding lemon juice and rind, orange rind, eggs [slowly, so it does not curdle] - you can still beat it with an electric mixer.
5. Sift in the polenta, soda and almonds stirring [best with a wooden spoon] until combined.
6. Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake it for about 40- 60 minutes [until golden brown and firm]. I kept it in the oven for an hour. If fine corn flour used instead the baking time will be about 35  minutes, as the dough is much lighter.
7. Remove the cake from the oven, let it cool for 15  minutes. In the mean time make the syrup - simmer the juices with sugar for about 5  minutes in the pan.
8. Turn the cake onto a plate and drizzle with the syrup. Let it cool completly before serving.
9. Just before serving drizzle the cake with juice of 1-2 lemons if you like to add some more tanginess, otherwise serve it as it is :-)
Bon appetite!





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