Polenta cake recipe for 8 people, takes only 20 mins; recipe has orange, unsalted butter, polenta, almond, baking powder, egg, egg yolk, golden caster sugar, mascarpone, cointreau and marmalade.
Orange & almond cake with citrus mascarpone
Course: Polenta cake
Servings
8
servings
Prep time
20 mins
Ingredients
- Egg: 7 large eggs
- Orange: 3 large oranges
- Almond: 200g flaked almonds
- Unsalted Butter: scrap of unsalted butter
- Baking Powder: 1 scant tbsp baking powder
- Golden Caster Sugar: 350g golden caster sugar
- Egg Yolk: 2 large egg yolks
- Polenta: 140g polenta, plus 1-2 tbsp
- Mascarpone: 500g tub mascarpone
- Marmalade: 3-4 heaped tbsp homemade (or artisan) lime marmalade, to taste
- Cointreau: 3-4 tbsp Cointreau or other orange liqeur, to taste
Directions
- Boil two of the oranges (whole) in water, with the lid on the pan, for about 1 hour or until squidgy. Drain and leave to cool.
- Butter a springform cake tin, 23cm/9in wide and 7cm/23/4in deep. Add 1-2 tablespoons of polenta, tip the grains around until the tin is coated, then knock out the excess. Set aside.
- Whizz the flaked almonds to a grainy powder in a food processor, then mix in a bowl with the polenta and baking powder. Set aside.
- Halve the cooked oranges and remove any pips. Remove zest from the third orange. Whizz the zest and the orange halves (with skin on) to a smooth puree in the food processor. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan oven 160C. Using a mixer or electric beaters, beat the eggs, yolks and sugar for a good 5-7 minutes until the batter looks like a very thick milkshake.
- Quickly beat in the almond mixture, then the puree until just blended. Pour the batter into the tin, leaving at least 1.5cm/5/8in at the top.
- Bake the cake in the middle of the oven. After 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 150C/ Gas 2/fan oven 130C, bake for 30 minutes, then reduce temperature to 140C/fan oven 120C for a further 30 minutes (if you have a gas oven, cook at gas 4 for 10 minutes, then at gas 2 for 11/4 hours until done without reducing the temperature further). The cake is ready when it has risen, is golden-brown and the centre is just firm - don't panic that it still feels fragile.
- Leave the cake to cool in its tin (it will sink a little), then run a palette knife around the edge before releasing the sides. Only attempt to transfer it from the metal base to a decorative plate or stand if you have a proper cake lifter.
- Whisk the liqueur and marmalade into the mascarpone. Serve the cake in thick wedges with the mascarpone dolloped on top.