RECIPE | LEMON AND POPPY SEED POLENTA CAKE

LEMON AND POPPY SEED POLENTA CAKE

A few weeks back I had the exciting ordeal of making a cake one of my much-loved lemon and poppy seed polenta cake's to be sent down to Duke Studios in Leeds for a fancy photo shoot to be featured in the August edition of the brand new and fabulous online culinary journal Food&_.

....the actual feature is listed HERE and below you can see the recipe for a delightfully moist gluten free lemon drizzle cake!

Cake:

200g Unsalted Butter

200g Ground Almonds

100g Polenta

2tsp Baking Powder (Gluten-free if this is for wheat or gluten intolerant people)

50g Poppy Seeds

2 Eggs

1tsp Vanilla Essence

3tbsp Plain Yoghurt

2tbsp Lemon Juice

2-3tbsp Milk

Zest of 3 Lemons

Crunchy Lemon Glaze:

Juice of 3 Lemons

130g Icing Sugar

50g Granulated Sugar

Lemon Icing:

1 tbsp Lemon Juice

115g Icing Sugar

Poppy Seeds and Lemon Zest to Sprinkle on top of the Icing

Method:

1.  Line and grease a 9" springform cake tin with baking parchment and butter and then pre-heat your oven to 180°C.

2.  Cream the butter and sugar together with a hand mixer or standing mixer until light and fluffy and pale in colour.

3.  Add the eggs and the vanilla essence to the butter and sugar.

4.  Weight out the ground almonds, polenta, baking powder and poppy seeds and fold into the wet mixture.

5.  At this point fold in the lemon zest, lemon juice and yoghurt. Mix it until it is all evenly combined. If the mixture feels quite stiff then add between 1-3tbsp of milk to loosen it.

6.  Place the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes until firm in the middle.

7.  Whilst the cake is still in the oven, prepare the crunchy lemon glaze mixture. Once the cake is removed from the oven, whilst still hot, prick the cke several times with a skewer and top with the crunchy lemon glaze using a pastry brush or pallet knife.

8. Leave to cool and refrigerate over night. Before serving top with the lemon icing and top with poppy seeds and lemon zest.

Photography and Styling: Jonathan Finch and Katy Lanceley