Nigella described this cake as ‘If you were to try to imagine what lemon curd would taste like in cake form, this would be it’ and she was just right. Her recipe for Lemon Polenta cake is so much more than your regular Victoria Sponge Cake for a teatime treat.
I made this cake on one Sunday afternoon for a luxurious, lockdown treat. The texture of the polenta soaked into the lemon syrup, with the almond flavour notes in the background is a perfect combination.
Nigella’s recipe advised 200g of Caster Sugar for the cake, however I used 150g instead as I personally felt this would be too sweet alongside the cake being soaked in a fresh lemon syrup.
I simply served the cake with some fresh strawberries and a sprinkling of icing sugar.
When the cake was finished (Note, I did not eat the entire cake myself, it was definitely shared amongst friends and family…!) I was left wanting more and immediately got round to brainstorming some variations to try out soon; Here they are:
Substituting the lemons for oranges or even limes!
Nigella suggested to use gluten-free baking powder or omit the baking powder altogether to make the cake gluten-free
She also suggested substituting the 200g of butter for 150ml of Olive Oil to make the cake dairy-free
Mixing some lemon curd with Greek Yoghurt (Full-fat of course) to crown the cake, finishing it off with some freshly grated lemon zest
Experimenting with the syrup – Perhaps using a rose water flavoured syrup or strawberry flavoured syrup that would complement the Lemon.
Without any further ado, this is Nigella’s Recipe and Method:
For the Cake:
200g soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing) – I used 150g instead which worked just as well
200g caster sugar
200g ground almonds
100 grams fine polenta (or cornmeal)
1½ teaspoons baking powder
3 large eggs
Zest of 2 lemons (save juice for syrup)
For the Syrup:
Juice of 2 lemons
125 grams icing sugar
Method:
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/gas mark 4/ 350°F.
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.
It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, 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 icing sugar in a smallish saucepan.
Once the icing 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.
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