Polenta has a wonderful way of soaking up and holding on to moisture in a recipe whilst retaining its gritty texture. Without the syrup, this cake would be pretty dry I have to admit; a couple of cups of tea would be needed to finish off a slice of this cake. Thankfully, the passion fruit syrup adds a couple of high notes to the zesty lemon hidden in the cake, forming a rich, moist slice of gluten-free goodness.
To cut preparation time, I used passion fruit juice made from concentrate, but if you have more time on your hands to make some fresh passion fruit juice, you will need 4-5 passion fruits: slice and scoop out the passion seeds and juice into a small pan, add 50ml water and 2 tablespoons of caster sugar. Gently bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Then pass the fruit through a sieve, before pouring over the warm cake.
Ingredients For the Cake 200g soft unsalted butter (room temperature) 200g caster sugar 200g ground almonds 100g fine polenta (or cornmeal) 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 3 large eggs 1 tsp of Almond Oil zest of 2 lemons 1 handful of chopped Pistachio nuts (garnish) For the Syrup 1 cup of Passion Fruit Juice Method Line a 2-3 inch deep baking tray with greaseproof paper, greasing the tray with butter before laying the paper to ensure it sticks. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 180C Place the soft butter and sugar in a large bowl and mix the two ingredients with a wooden spoon or electric hand whisk until light and creamy. Take all the dry ingredients (including the lemon zest) and blend them together before adding them a couple of spoons at a time to the butter cream. In alternate scoops, pour in a little of the whisked egg and almond oil. When the ingredients have been blended well, spoon the mixture into the baking tray and level the mixture off with a spatula to ensure an even surface. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 40 minutes (or until you can poke a knife through the middle and it comes out clean). When the sides of the cake have shrunk away, you know that its ready. While the cake is baking, pour the passion fruit juice into a saucepan and bring it to a boil for 2-3 minutes. When the cake is ready, take it out the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before poking holes all over the cake to make it porous to receive the juice. Then pour the passion fruit juice evenly over the top of the cake. Allow it to sit in the juice until completely cool before slicing it and garnishing it with chopped pistachio’s.Lemon Passion Polenta Cake
Looks great, Rai 🙂
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Thanks Jess! ☺️
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