This Lemon Almond Polenta Cake is a bit like a good pair of jeans – excellent dressed up for a special occasion or just as good plain and simple on an ordinary day!
As this cake was intended for a birthday party, I doubled up the ingredients to make a layer cake and accessorised with elderflower and passion fruit. Nutty, moist and tangy and with a nice bite from the polenta – delicious!
But this is just as lovely served simply as a single storey, drizzled with lemon-laced honey, and prettily sprinkled with zest.
It’s the type of cake I love to bake – trouble free, just a little whisk and stir and popped in the oven for 30 minutes.
When the cake is cool, prick it all over with a cocktail stick and trickle lemony syrup into the tiny holes.
Then spread the middle with the curd and spoon the over passion fruit pulp, so that when you sandwich the two sides together, the filling oozes out here and there, like golden rays of sunshine.
Lemon Almond Polenta Cake Recipe
To make one cake (12 slices) Just double the quantities for a special layer cake.
1 cup light olive oil
1 cup of golden caster sugar
3 eggs
2/3 cup greek yoghurt
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup polenta
1 ½ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp elderflower cordial
Zest of 2 lemons
For the syrup:
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tbsp elderflower cordial
1/2 the pot of best quality lemon or passion fruit curd
For the filling:
other 1/2 of the pot of curd
The pulp of 2 large passionfruit
- Preheat the oven to 180˚C . Grease and line the base of a 23cm spring-form cake tin.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, yoghurt and sugar until pale and frothy.
- Sprinkle in the almond meal, polenta and baking powder trying to conserve the airiness of the mixture as much as possible.
- Finally, grate in the lemon zest and add the elderflower cordial which of course ideally would be homemade, but on this occasion I cheated with a bottle of Rock’s organic!.
- Pour into the lined cake tin or tins, and bake for 35 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean and the edges of the cake are golden and coming away from the side of the tin.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin on a cake rack.
- For the drizzle, in a small saucepan combine the juice of the 2 lemons and 2 tbsps of elderflower cordial with half a pot of lemon or passion fruit curd. Warm slowly until melted together into a golden syrup.
- Using a cocktail stick, make little holes all over the top of the cooled cake and spoon two thirds of the syrup over the pricked surface of the cake.
- If you’re making the double decker cake, spread the remaining lemon curd over the cake base, and then spoon over the pulp of the 2 passion fruit.
- Sandwich the two sides together and if possible decorate with some real elderflowers but if not, sprinkle over the last of the drizzle and a scattering of lemon zest will do nicely.
If you fancy something chocolatey, try my Easy Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Recipe.
