Nigella's Lemon Polenta Cake

I love Nigella's recipes, and this Lemon Polenta Cake is not only fabulously moreish and delicious, but gluten free.  It tastes of sunshine, and was just perfect for a day spent singing Telemann cantatas with two friends - gluten-free Helen on the violin/recorder and Matthew playing the spinet.  Bringing really old music to life without hearing it first is an art, just like bringing a recipe to life!  The photo doesn't really do it justice, and I am surprised that it looks a little brown, too, as it wasn't when it left the oven.  Maybe it had a dose of fake bake....  As soon as the the cake comes out of the oven it has an astonishing amount of syrup poured over it, which soaks it in lusciousness.   I'm sure you could also make it dairy-free by using a spread instead of butter, but no guarantees as I haven't tried it!

Nigella's Lemon Polenta Cake

Nigella’s Lemon Polenta Cake

7oz/200g soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)

7oz/200g caster sugar

7oz/200g ground almonds

3.5oz/100g fine polenta (I used medium)

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 

3 large eggs

zest of 2 lemons (save juice for syrup)

Syrup

juice of 2 lemons

4.5oz/125 grams icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the base of a 23cm/9inch spring clip cake tin with baking parchment.  Grease its sides lightly with butter.

Beat the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy, either with a hand held whisk or

a Kenwood/Kitchen Aid mixer.  Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.  This stops the eggs from curdling the sugar/butter mix.

Lastly, add the lemon zest and tip the mixture into your prepared tin.  Nigella suggests you bake it for about 40 minutes, but I found it was ready far sooner – check after 30 (if it looks brown on top but isn’t cooked, protect the top with some foil).    The cake is ready when a skewer or hot knife comes out clean and the edge of the cake begins to shrink away from the tin.    Take the cake out of the oven, leaving in the tin.

Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and icing sugar in a small saucepan until the icing sugar has dissolved.  Pierce the top of the cake with a cake tester (Nigella’s suggestion, she says a skewer is too wide, but that’s all I had!).  Pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its tin.

I served it with an orange mascarpone cream – mix the juice of half an orange with a tablespoon of icing sugar and an 8oz/220g tub of mascarpone.