Lemon and Coconut Polenta Cake

Lemon and Coconut Polenta cake is an Italian-style lemon polenta cake that works perfectly with a nice cup of afternoon tea. 

This sweet, buttery, lemon cake has a slightly coarser texture than your average sponge cake thanks to the polenta. And it will stay fresh for at least 5 days.

We were inspired by Nigella Lawson’s lemon polenta cake over 10 years. This is how we adapted the recipe, and it is a big hit with the family.

This cake is perfect for preparing ahead of a tea party, gathering, or for impressing your mates when they come over to watch a bit of Saturday night telly.

It’s a rather more-ish cake so whenever we’ve made it, it usually sits in the kitchen where we sneak in for surreptitious handfuls of cake. It doesn’t last long!

This is a gluten-free cake, so great for those of you who are wheat-averse.

Lemon and Coconut Polenta Cake (serves 8-10)

Ingredients

• 200g Unsalted Butter, softened (plus, a little more for greasing the tin)
• 200g Caster Sugar
• 120g Fine (dry) Polenta (It is also sold as Fine Corn Meal in some shops)
• 80g Desiccated Coconut
• 100g Ground Almonds
• 1 ½ tsp Baking Powder (gluten-free if you prefer)
• 3 Large Eggs
• Zest of 2 Lemons

for the syrup

• Juice of 2 Lemons
• 125g Icing Sugar

Method

1. Grease a 9-inch round springform tin and preheat the oven to 180C (fan-assisted)/190C/ 375F/Gas Mark 5.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl. This works best with very soft butter.
3. In a separate bowl mix together the ground almonds, dry polenta, coconut, and baking powder.
4. Add a third of the dry mix plus an egg to the sugar-butter mixture. Beat in well and then repeat with the following two eggs. The mixture should be almost fluffy.
5. Stir through the lemon zest and tip the mixture into the greased baking tin.
6. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes. The cake will be a delightful golden colour and beginning to shrink away from the edges.
7. While the cake is cooling, make the syrup by boiling together the icing sugar and lemon juice in a small pan.
8. Once the sugar is fully dissolved, prick the cake all over with a thin skewer and pour the syrup over the cake.
9. Allow to cool a little before removing from the tin and serve. 

You might also like:

• Rum and Ginger Cake
• Coconut Black Rice Pudding