How to make an orange polenta cake

What is polenta and how can it be turned into a delicious cake?

Updated on19 01 2021

Fancy a polenta cake with a zesty orange syrup? We've got you covered with this gluten-free recipe (as polenta is made from cornmeal).

The polenta cake recipe (below) can also be made vegan by replacing the eggs with a substitute such as chia seeds, flax seeds or an egg replacer.

What is polenta?

Polenta is a north Italian dish made of coarsely ground corn. It is made by grinding corn into flour, or meal.

It has a rich yellow, yolk-like colour, and has a slightly sweet flavour. Polenta can be cooked to be creamy and thick or can set into a form and sliced.

Is polenta fewer calories than wheat flour?

According to Medical News Today, polenta is low calorie. In each cooked serving, there are about 70 calories per 100g.

Nutritious, whole foods that are low in calories, such as polenta, can be a good choice for people looking to lose or maintain weight. And as we've already discovered, it is also gluten-free.

Are polenta and cornmeal the same?

Polenta is a dish, and cornmeal is an ingredient which is the main ingredient of the dish. Don't use finely ground cornmeal or corn flour, which has a very fine consistency.

If your recipe requires polenta, use packages that are labelled as polenta or regular medium or coarsely-ground cornmeal.

Orange polenta cake recipe from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients

200 g unsalted butter , (at room temperature), plus extra for greasing

200 g demerara sugar

3 large free-range eggs (to make it vegan you can use: 1 tbsp of chia seeds, flax seeds or egg replacer to 3 tbsp water. This replaces 1 egg)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

200 g ground almonds

100 g coarse polenta

2 oranges

1 teaspoon orange blossom water or substitute with orange oil drops or orange zest. As the water is quite delicate the zest of 1/2 to 1 full orange should be enough or 2-3 drops of orange oil

1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder

Syrup

5 cardamom pods

250 ml orange juice , (from 3-4 oranges)

30 ml orange blossom water

125 g golden caster sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F/gas 2½. Grease a 20cm springform tin, line the bottom and sides with greaseproof paper and grease again.

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and creamy – don’t worry if it looks gritty, as the sugar will dissolve when it’s cooked. Beat in the eggs, one by one, then stir in the vanilla essence.

In a small bowl, combine the ground almonds, polenta, orange zest, orange blossom water and baking powder, then stir this into the cake mix.

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.

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.

To make the syrup, crush the cardamom pods, then put all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Simmer over a medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, or until reduced and thickened slightly. Set aside to cool.

Prick the cake all over with a skewer, then brush generously with the syrup. Delicious served with a dollop of crème fraîche or yoghurt and an extra drizzle of syrup.

On Nadiya’s British Food Adventure, the winner of the sixth series of The Great British Bake Off (2015) shows us how to make an orange-scented polenta cake. She says that the peel contains a lot of the zesty flavour, so she zests 4 mandarins into this cake. When she adds the orange blossom water, she says it has a strong pollen flavour, so it is easy to go overboard with it. As she has already experimented with it, just follow Nadiya’s quantities and it will work well! See the recipe in the video below.