Skip to content

Beta This app is in Beta Testing

Polenta Cake

No ratings yet
Italy

Known as an Italian recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

Ingredients 18 ingredients

  1. Cut
  2. 1 Stick butter -- softened, Unsalted
  3. Grated
  4. 1/4 ts Sugar
  5. Polenta
  6. 1/2 Vanilla beans, or 1 tsp van
  7. 4 Egg whites -- room temp
  8. 1 t Orange zest -- finely
  9. 1/2 ts Lemon zest -- finely grated
  10. 2 Egg yolks -- room temp
  11. 2 ts Confectioner's sugar
  12. 1/2 c Yellow cornmeal, or course
  13. 2/3 c Natural almonds
  14. Sweetened whipped cream
  15. 1/4 c Cornstarch (yes 1/4 cup!)
  16. 1/2 ts Baking powder
  17. 1/2 c Sugar
  18. Extract
Contains EggsMilkTree nuts Read from the ingredients, not verified. Check labels.

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
  • Hot sugar. Hot sugar sticks to skin and burns far hotter than boiling water: don't touch or taste it. Keep a bowl of cold water close, and keep children away while it cooks.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 325. Generously butter an 8″ X 1″ square baking pan.
  2. In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the sugar and the butter, egg yolks and orange and lemon zests. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into mixture, or add extract. Using an electric mixer, beat at high speed until smooth, light and creamy, about 2 minutes.
  3. In a food processor, finely grind the almonds with the cornmeal/polenta, cornstarch and baking powder.
  4. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon sugar until they form soft peaks. Gently fold the dry ingredients and 1/2 the beaten egg whites into the butter mixture; then fold in the remaining egg whites unti just incorporated.
  5. Gently scrape the batter evenly into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer pan to a cooling rack for 10 minutes; then invert the cake on the rack and let cool completely. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar, cut into 6 pieces and serve with topping. -Richard Sax

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Mixing bowl
  • Whisk
  • Electric mixer
  • Food processor
  • Chef's knife
  • Grater
  • Spatula
Source Not stated: saved from a website or mailing list, rights unverified
Credit

Recipe By: From Food & Wine 1994. Saved from RecipeSource (SOAR) (http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/desserts/cakes/08/rec0808.html), file Recipes/www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/desserts/cakes/08/rec0808.html in the Internet Archive item cooking-recipes (https://archive.org/details/cooking-recipes).

What was changed: Read by machine from the mastercook text: title, ingredients and method as written, columns closed up and wrapped lines joined; credit lines kept apart; e-mail addresses removed; an all-capitals title given ordinary capitals. Not rewritten.