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I had a few oranges to use and was curious to see how a polenta cake would taste. I wasn’t sure what the texture would be like although it’s not all made from polenta as it included ground almonds. I have made almond cakes before and they’re so delicious.

The cake did taste nice, the juiciness from the orange and the nuttiness from the almonds both came through. It was all balanced with the syrup poured on top, which made the cake moist, however, I found that the polenta had more of a coarseness to it and ended up as more of a dense cake with a bitty texture even though I used fine polenta not coarse. It’s quite a rich cake, a little slice would be adequate, and it tastes nice with a dollop of cream to help cut the richness out. I wouldn’t say this was in my top 10 of cakes but I would make it again, especially for those who have a GF diet.

I added the addition of pistachios on top to give it that crunch, the recipe is pretty straight forward, the only hard part was creaming the butter and sugar which can take a while to do.

Gluten Free Orange, Cardamon Polenta Cake

A juicy, syrupy orange and cardamon tasting cake
Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes

Ingredients
  

For the cake

  • 200 g Unsalted butter, (at room temperature),
  • 200 g Sugar
  • 3 large Eggs
  • 1 tsp Vanila extract
  • 200 g Ground almonds
  • 100 g Polenta
  • 1 tsp Ground Cardamon
  • 1 tsp Baking powder

For the syrup

  • 100 ml Honey
  • 140 ml Juice orange
  • Optional chopped pistachios on top

Instructions
 

  • 1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease a 20cm springform tin, line the bottom and sides with greaseproof paper and grease again.
    2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs, one by one, then stir in the vanilla essence.
    3. In a small bowl, combine the ground almonds, polenta, orange zest, ground cardamon and baking powder, then stir this into the cake mix.
    4. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the surface is light brown and the cake is coming away slightly from the sides of the tin.
    5. Remove the tin from the oven, leave to cool for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a plate. This cake will be quite fragile, so handle carefully as you remove it.
    6. To make the syrup, in a saucepan add the orange juice and honey and simmer until slightly thicken.
    7. Prick the cake all over with a skewer, then brush generously with the syrup. Delicious served with a dollop of thick cream