Here’s my new favorite cake. It’s perfect for summer entertaining. For dinner, you can serve it with fresh fruit or berries or roasted rhubarb and whipped cream. (That’s my plan for tonight.) And tomorrow morning, I’m guessing our guests will enjoy a slice with their coffee. (I know I will.)
The cake is so versatile because it’s light, not too sweet, and the flavors of olive oil and citrus play well with others. The polenta adds a beautiful golden color and a nice texture.
And –almost best of all– it’s quick and simple to make. Nearly foolproof. The only trick is that to bake properly, the cake needs a hole in the middle. To accomplish that, I place a small bowl or ramekin in the center of the pan. It’s possible to use a bundt pan for this cake, but I don’t recommend it. Something about the way it conducts heat tends to dry it out.
Recipe
Ingredients
For the cake:
1 tablespoon of butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup coarse polenta (or stone ground cornmeal), plus a little more for dusting the pan
2 cups flour
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2/3 cup milk
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons of Cointreau (or other orange-flavored liqueur)
1 tablespoon of baking powder
For the glaze:
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons milk
two or three drops of lemon extract (optional)
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease a 9″ baking pan and a 3″ bowl or ramekin with the butter. Dust both with polenta to coat well. Place the bowl or ramekin upside down in the center of the pan.
2. Beat the sugar and eggs with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for about a minute until they are pale yellow.
3. Add the polenta, flour, oil, milk, lemon zest and liqueur. Mix until well combined –either with the electric mixer on low speed or by hand with a wooden spoon. Add the baking powder and stir until thoroughly combined.
4. Carefully pour the batter into the prepared pan. Push the bowl or ramekin down to make sure it’s in contact with the bottom of the pan.
5. Bake until golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool. When the cake is cool enough to handle, run a knife around the edge and invert the pan to remove it. Carefully lift out the bowl or ramekin from the bottom of the cake. (You may need to cut away a bit of the cake to do this if some of the batter flowed under the bowl as it baked –as mine always does. Eat this bit of cake immediately.)
6. Serve as-is, or dress it up with the glaze. Mix together all of the ingredients for the glaze in a small bowl and artfully drizzle over the cooled cake.
Serve on its own, or with fresh berries or roasted rhubarb, and whipped cream.
