Orange and Polenta Cake

This cake is deliciously moist.  It is great as either an afternoon tea cake or served as a pudding, perhaps with greek yoghurt or crème fraîche. There are two parts – the cake and a syrup which you pour over the top.

Cake ingredients

Orange Syrup Ingredients

1. Grease and line a 20cm/8″ springform tin.
   
   Click here for a step by step guide on how to Line a Cake Tin
2. Preheat the oven to 160˚C or 150˚ Fan.
3. Using a fine grater, grate the zest of the oranges and set this aside.  Make sure you only grate the outside shiny orange layer – not the bitter, white pith.
   
4. Cut the oranges in half and squeeze the juice in to a small bowl and set this aside also.
5. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and the sugar together for about 2 minutes until it is light and fluffy.  The sugar will still be grainy if you used demerara sugar – don’t worry.
   
6. Beat the eggs in one at a time and then add the vanilla extract and 2 Tablespoons of the orange juice and give the mixture a final beat to combine everything.
   
7. In a separate bowl, mix together the ground almonds, polenta, orange zest and baking powder.
   
8. Tip the dry ingredient mixture into the butter mixture and give everything a good mix with a spoon.
   
9. Put the mixture into the lined springform tin and smooth it out with a knife or spatula so it reaches the sides and is flat on top.
   
10. Cook for 50 minutes.  The cake should just be coming away from the sides of the tin.
    
    
11. While the cake is cooking, make the orange syrup. Put the orange juice and Caster Sugar into a small pot and bring them to the boil. Boil for approximately 4 minutes – until the liquid has thickened slightly into a syrup.
    
12. Using a skewer, make holes in the top of the cake.
    
13. Take the cake out of the tin and put it on your serving dish.  Brush the warm syrup over the top and sides of the cake.
      
14. You can decorate with chopped pistachios and/or orange zest