Making Cake With Lemons and Polenta

If you had asked me this morning what my view was on making desserts with polenta, my response would have been not really my thing. I did a little research however and of course was able to find something very appealing to both the eyes and mouth. The more I thought about polenta as an ingredient in a dessert the more ideas popped in my head about various cornbreads, cakes etc. After all polenta is literally cornmeal with an Italian name. Check out the recipe below.

Ingredients

For the cake

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for greasing

Flour, for dusting the pan (use gluten-free flour to make this 100% gluten-free)

1 cup sugar

2 cups almond meal

1/2 cup medium-grind polenta (or cornmeal)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons meyer lemon zest (from 2 – 3 lemons)

1/4 cup meyer lemon juice

For the glaze

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

3 tablespoons crème fraîche (make this at home!)

1 tablespoon meyer lemon juice, plus more as needed

Meyer lemon zest, for sprinkling on the cake as a decoration

Directions

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat an oven to 325°F, and set a rack in the middle position. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of 9-inch springform pan with butter, then sprinkle with about 1 tablespoon of flour. Shake the flour around the pan to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Discard any excess flour. Line the bottom of pan with a round of parchment paper.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes). Meanwhile, add almond meal, polenta, baking powder and sea salt to a medium bowl, whisking to combine. Beat one egg into the butter-sugar mixture until fully combined, then beat in 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Repeat alternating with remaining 2 eggs and 2/3’s dry ingredients. Stir in vanilla extract, lemon zest and lemon juice.
Scrape cake batter into the prepared springform pan and smooth out to the edges. Set the pan on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (45 – 55 minutes). Transfer pan to a cooling rack, and let sit for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen, then remove the sides of the pan. Leave the cake on the bottom of the springform pan, and let cool on the rack.
In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners’ sugar, crème fraîche and meyer lemon juice. The glaze should be thick, but pour-able. Add more lemon juice drip by drip if needed to get to this consistency. Spoon glaze over the cake in an even layer, and spread out to the edges, so it drips over the sides. You may not use all the glaze. Finish with a dusting of finely grated meyer lemon zest.