Orange Polenta Cake

Gluten-free tea-time polenta cake!

Not being able to eat gluten should not mean that you can't enjoy cakes polenta (100% cornmeal and therefore with no gluten) can be used in a variety of ways but we particularly like this traditional Italian recipe for an orangey moist cake.

**Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease caused by intolerence to gluten which is found in wheat, barley and rye. 1 in 100 people in the UK has coeliac disease for which there is no cure and they have to keep to a strict gluten-free diet for life

Orange and Polenta Cake

For an alternative try Chocolate Polenta Cake – leave out the juice and zest of the oranges and add 35g cocoa powder instead. Delicious! I recently made this cake. It was delicious and moist. I will try a lemon version of this too.

Ingredients
375g salted butter
375g caster sugar
360g ground almonds
5 large eggs
juice and finely-grated zest of four organic oranges
150g polenta

Method:

Line a deep cake tin with greaseproof baking paper and oil with butter. Cut the butter into small dice sized pieces and beat with the sugar in a large bowl. When the mixture is light and fluffy stir in the almonds. Beat the eggs together with the vanilla extract in a bowl and, stirring all the while, add the eggs to the butter mixture. Add the orange juice, orange zest, baking powder, polenta and a pinch of salt. Mix to a smooth batter.
Pour the mixture into the cake tin, tap to even it out. Put the tin in the centre of an oven pre-heated to 150 degC and cook for about 50 minutes until the cake has cooked through (you can check by putting a skewer through the middle of the cake when it comes out clean it should be cooked). Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.

Polenta