It’s been about 3 1/2 years since we last made Nigella’s Lemon Polenta Cake and today seemed the perfect day to rectify that. It’s a great cake with lots of flavor – and really easy to pull together.
The original recipe calls for almond meal. I used macadamia meal today, because that’s what I had in the cabinet. I also used demerara sugar that I pulverized in the food processor and stone-ground yellow grits from Adluh in South Carolina that I also pulverized in the food processor.
The changes made for a great cake – although the original is pretty darned good to begin with!
Lemon Polenta Cake
adapted from Nigella Lawson
Cake:
- 1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter
- 1 cup superfine sugar
- 2 cups macadamia nut meal (or almond or nut of choice)
- 1 cup fine polenta or cornmeal
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 eggs
- Zest 2 lemons (save the juice for the syrup)
Syrup:
- Juice 2 lemons
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the pan with parchment paper and grease lightly with butter.
Beat the butter and sugar till light.
Mix together the nut meal, polenta and baking powder, and add a bit to the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
Beat in the lemon zest and spread the mixture into the pan and bake for about 35 minutes. A cake tester should come out clean and 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 small saucepan. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester and pour the warm syrup over the cake. Leave to cool in the pan before placing it on a cake plate.
Powerfully lemony with a really interesting cornmealy-grit. It’s pretty much a taste sensation and just different enough to be really enjoyable.
I don’t think we’ll wait another 3 1/2 years before making it, again.