Gluten Free Orange and Redcurrant Polenta Cake.

I’ve been meaning to try a polenta cake for AGES, finally today I got my chance. We were asked to take a dessert to our home group meeting, typically although I was given a weeks notice it was at lunchtime that I realised with a slight panic I had to knock something tasty up. Having been inspired by seeing this lemon polenta cake last night and on a high after completing the filming for my Pilates DVD, I stepped up to the challenge, here it is fresh from the oven.

Dietitian UK: Gluten and Wheat free Orange Polenta Cake.

You know what, it was easy, peasy, orange squeezy 😉

I’m well known for NEVER following a recipe, so here’s my adaptation, partially because I had no lemons and partially because I’m just like that. I found the red currants added a really nice zing, but you could use any berries, I just happened to have these growing in my garden (though these were last years harvest from the freezer).

Recipe:

150g margarine

150g sugar

3 eggs

75g ground almonds

1/2 tsp baking powder (gluten free if needed)

4 oranges

75g polenta or cornmeal

150g redcurrants

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark3/150C, grease and line a cake tin (I’m no good with sizes so I’ll just say I used a round one!).

2. Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs one at a time.

3. Add the ground almonds, baking powder and mix well.

4. Zest all 4 orange and juice 2 oranges, add to the mixture, add the polenta.

5. Spoon half the mix into the cake tin, then sprinkle on the red currants and top with the rest of the mixture.

6. Bake for 45 minutes until golden on the top and the house smells yummy 🙂

7. Add the juice of the final 2 oranges to a pan with the 50g sugar, boil gently for 5 minutes to make a syrup.

8. Use a skewer to make holes in the cake and pour the syrup on, it will soak in.

9. Allow to cook before removing the cake from the tin.

It’s had a good reception from my taste testers. Really moist and tangy and the redcurrants looked lovely. Though certainly a treat and not low fat, I’ll certainly be making this again.