Beach Breakkie. Lemon Polenta Cake

Over the Easter weekend we hatched a plan to have breakkie on the beach and watch the sun come up over the ocean (although in reality we missed the event by about 10 mins thanks to the necessary picnic making). 


For the excursion I made a lemon and polenta cake which, with a thermos of fresh coffee and a dollop of greek yog, made our sandy table a feast and happily dispatched the yawns.  


The inspiration of a polenta cake recipe came from the Chelsea Physic Garden in London where David and Limpet run a wonderful cafe, 'Tangerine Dream', producing similar fare.  If you are ever in the area you must go for tea.  

I had stuck a lemon polenta cake recipe (from Nigella's website) into my scrapbook a year or two ago and had been waiting for the right moment to give it a go.  However, the problem with my scrapbook was that somehow I had lost the cake-tin dimensions.  The Bear on cue suddenly announced that thick cakes are rubbish as they require too big a bite, so we opted for a seemingly too large 23 cm round tin.  The results were perfect and my previous awe of huge three or four tiered cakes has suddenly dissipated: thin cakes do seem more elegant as well as edible.  Why make a cake where in one bite you get all icing and the other none at all?  

Ingredients

Cake

200g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

200g ground almonds

100g fine polenta

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

Zest of 2 unwaxed lemons (save the juice for the syrup and if you can't get your hands on the unwaxed version wash their waxed cousins in hot water before use)

Syrup 

Juice of 2 lemons

125g icing sugar

23 cm round cake tin (anything smaller and the cake would be too crumbly to cut)

Heat oven to 180C

1.  Line the base of the tin with greaseproof paper and grease the sides with some extra unsalted butter.

2.  Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fully whipped together (I used an electric handheld whisk).

3.  In a separate bowl mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder.

4.  Alternate beating in the dry ingredients  with the addition of the eggs one at a time into the butter/sugar mixture, I used a wooden spoon for this part.

5.  Add the lemon zest to the mixture and scrape it all into the tin.

6.  Bake for 35-40 minutes until the sides of the cake start coming away from the edge of the tin and the top is golden brown.

7.  While the cake is cooking make the syrup - warm the juice and sugar in a small saucepan until the icing sugar is dissolved in the syrup.

8.  Once you take the cake out of the oven leave it in the tin and quickly make lots of small holes with a toothpick or something similarly fine all over the surface going to about half the depth of the cake.

9.  Pour over the hot syrup making sure you completely cover the cake and the holes.

10.  Leave the cake to cool in the tin and be gentle when turning out, the syrup makes it rather crumbly.

I really recommend serving this cake with a dollop of thick greek yog on the side and if in season maybe a few raspberries.  It works perfectly for breakkie, tea or pudding and looks like it will keep fresh for a least a few days thanks to the syrup.  Oh and a final beware - don't put kitchen roll, a doily or anything paper-based on the bottom of the cake tin, the cake is sticky and will cling like crazy when cut.

Enjoy.