Lemon Polenta Cornmeal Cake Recipes

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line the bottom of a 10-inch cake pan with parchment paper.
• Beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the room-temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next.
• In a separate bowl, combine the almond meal, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Gently fold it into the butter mixture, stirring just until combined.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 90 to 120 minutes.
• While the cake is baking, combine the lemon juice and superfine sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat.
• Remove the cake from the oven and use a skewer or toothpick to prick holes in the cake. Pour the lemon syrup over the surface. Allow the cake to cool in the pan completely before serving.

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

Steps:

• This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. The flat, plain disc is reminiscent of the confections that sit geometrically arranged in patisserie windows in Italy; the sharp, syrupy sogginess borrows from the classic English teatime favorite, the lemon drizzle cake. It is a good marriage: I love Italian cooking in all respects save one - I find their cakes both too dry and too sweet. Here, though, the flavorsome grittiness of the polenta and tender rubble of ground almond meal provide so much better a foil for the wholly desirable dampness than does the usual flour.
• But there is more to it than that. By some alchemical process, the lemon highlights the eggy butteriness of the cake, making it rich and sharp at the same time. If you were to try to imagine what lemon curd would taste like in cake form, this would be it.
• Although I am greedily happy to slice and cram messily straight into my mouth, letting damp clumps fall where they will, this cake is best eaten - in company at least - with spoon and fork. Either way, consider it a contender for teatime comfort and supper-party celebration alike.
• For the cake: Line the base of your cake pan with parchment paper and grease its sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees 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 almond meal, 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 pan 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 pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.
• For the syrup: Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar in a smallish saucepan. Once the confectioners' sugar has 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 pan.
• Make Ahead Note: The cake can be baked up to 3 days ahead and stored in airtight container in a cool place. Will keep for total of 5 to 6 days.
• Freeze Note: The cake can be frozen on its lining paper as soon as cooled, wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, for up to 1 month. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature.

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the base of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper and butter sides; set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and superfine sugar until pale and fluffy.
• In a medium bowl, mix together almond meal, polenta, and baking powder. Add some of the almond meal mixture to the bowl with the butter mixture and beat to combine. Add one egg and mix until combined. With the mixer on low, continue alternating adding remaining almond meal mixture and 2 eggs; mix until well combined. Add lemon zest and mix just to combine.
• Pour batter into prepared pan and transfer to oven; bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs and cake begins to pull away from sides of the pan, about 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, mix together lemon juice and confectioners' sugar; place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved; remove syrup from heat.
• Using a cake tester, prick holes all over the top of the cake; pour warm syrup over cake and let cool completely. Remove from pan and serve.

LEMON CORNMEAL CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine milk and lemon juice in a bowl; let stand until thickened, about 5 minutes. Pulse almonds, cane sugar, and zest in a food processor until finely ground. Transfer mixture to a large bowl; stir in cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add oil, eggs, and almond extract to milk mixture, and whisk until combined. Stir into cornmeal mixture.
• Brush a 9-inch springform pan with oil. Pour batter into pan. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until cake is golden and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Unmold and dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving. (Cake can be kept, covered, at room temperature up to 2 days.)

POLENTA POUND CAKE WITH PEACH TOPPING AND MASCARPONE WHIPPED CREAM

Steps:

• Set up a grill for cooking over indirect heat. If using a charcoal grill, build the coals on one side only. If using a gas grill, heat one side only.
• Spray the bottom of a loaf pan with the cooking spray; line with parchment paper, then spray with cooking spray one more time. Set aside.
• Whisk together the flour, polenta, baking powder and salt. Set aside. To a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the butter and granulated sugar. Cream until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs and egg yolk and beat again to fully incorporate. Add the ricotta, Greek yogurt, vanilla and orange zest and beat again to combine, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix by hand to incorporate. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, then place on the indirect-heat side of the grill, close the lid of the grill and bake until set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50 minutes to an hour. Remove from the grill and let cool completely.
• For the peach topping: Meanwhile, add the marmalade, orange juice and peaches to a pot, place over indirect heat and bring to a gentle simmer for the flavors to meld together, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Make the mascarpone whipped cream: Beat the heavy cream and confectioners' sugar with a blender until whipped cream forms. Fold in the mascarpone and vanilla.
• Remove the cake from the pan, then slice and serve with the peach topping and mascarpone whipped cream spooned over the top.

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

Steps:

• Butter a 23cm cake tin and heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Put the lemons in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, drain, pour over more cold water, then simmer for 1 hr until the lemons are really soft, topping up with more water if you need to. Drain the lemons well. When cool, halve them, remove the pips and blitz in a food processor to a purée.
• Add all the other cake ingredients and carry on blitzing until you have a loose batter. Scrape the batter into the cake tin and bake for 40-50 mins until golden and starting to shrink away from the sides.
• While the cake bakes, make the drizzle by mixing the sugar with the lemon juice. When the cake is ready, remove from the oven and leave to cool a little. While still warm, pour over the drizzle and leave to cool completely. Serve with mascarpone.

LEMON (OR LIME) CORNMEAL CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 325°F
• Spray cooking spray into a 12 cup Bundt pan.
• Mix together flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, set aside.
• In medium bowl, beat butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice with mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs one at a time, until well-blended.
• With mixer on low, alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk until the batter is smooth.
• Scrape into the prepared Bundt pan; level the top with a spatula.
• Bake 55-65 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
• Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, whisk glaze ingredients in a small bowl (sugar may not be dissolved all the way).
• Invert cake from pan to plate.
• Brush glaze all over hot cake (sugar crystals will be evident).
• Let cake rest several hours before serving.
• Store cake at room temperature up to 4 days.
• Sprinkle with powdered sugar or serve with blueberry or strawberry preserves.
• Enjoy!

LEMON POLENTA (CORNMEAL) CAKE

Steps:

• Grease and line a small cake tin or loaf pan and set the oven to 180°C or 350°F.
• Place the dates and water in a pan and simmer over a low heat until they are soft and most of the water has been absorbed. Allow them to cool a little.
• Process the dates and butter or margarine until creamy.
• Add the eggs, ground almonds, polenta, flour, baking powder, lemon rind and lemon juice. Process until well combined. The mixture should have a soft dropping consistency, so add a little extra water if needed.
• Place the mixture in the baking tin and bake for approximately 45 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch.
• Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and remove the lining paper. Once cold, store in an airtight container and eat within three days or freeze.