Ingredients
- 200 grams soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)
- 200 grams caster sugar
- 200 grams ground almonds
- 100 grams fine polenta (or cornmeal)
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder (see NOTE below)
- 3 large eggs
- zest of 2 lemons (save juice for syrup)
FOR THE SYRUP
- juice of 2 lemons
- 125 grams sugar
- Line the base of a 23cm / 9inch springform cake tin with baking parchment and grease its sides lightly with butter.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan
- Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding 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.
- Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.
- If the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin.
- Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and sugar in a smallish saucepan.
- Once the sugar’s dissolved into the juice, you’re done.
- Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its tin.
Method
Still in Lockdown (its March 21), and the small group of us at home have been making a weekly bake to help with those moments when you need a little something. The Youngest and the Middle Girls have been exploring variations on a theme of Brownie, including a Creme Egg brownie. Some of these tend to be way too sweet for my tastes, but they like them as do other people who try them, so what do I know. Oh and Tik Tok is also a source of give-it-a-try recipes for the Youngest, which is great to see, even if the nutritional value is sometimes a little wayward.
Anyway, although I like a bit of sugar after a meal, I dont like things too sweet - think dark chocolate and citrus. I also like things with a bit of body, rather than being too light and insubstantial. So I went in search of a lemon polenta cake, and came across this recipe from Nigella. I had all the ingredients (I used cornmeal instead of echt polenta) so gave it a go.
The resulting cake ticked all my boxes - buttery, lemony but with enough sugar to satisfy. It's good, but the rating is mine alone cos its too grown up for the other 2 to try! My only slight bugbear is that given the absence of flour (and so gluten) although this rises nicely in the oven, it is destined to fall back again as it cools. It adds to the density, but not to the look. A small thing. Oh and yes, it is Gluten Free (as long as your baking powder is)