My love for rustic cakes just keeps growing. There is so much beauty and enjoyment to be found in the simplicity of such cakes. This lemon polenta cake is one that I find myself making over and over again. Almond flour and polenta keep it dense and full of texture, while grass-fed butter, cardamom, and fresh lemon give it a richness contrasted with the bright pops of lemon. I really prefer this cake warm as it highlights it’s buttery texture and warm, bright flavors. If would be so nice along side a scoop of vanilla ice cream, too.
A few tips:
Use grass-fed butter. The flavor will be so much richer than if you were to use conventional.
If you aren’t sure if you love cardamom or not, cut it back to 1/4 teaspoon.
Use Meyer lemons for a more mellow lemon flavor.
I use an 8″ cake pan in the recipe, but you can also use a 9″ springform, as I did with the cake that is pictured. For those of you wanting to know where to find the pan, here is the link:
Serve warm. with ice cream, if you’re feeling it.
- 1 cup Grass-fed Butter, softened
- 1 cup Raw Cane Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 3 cups Almond Flour
- 1 cup Fine Polenta(use cornmeal if you can't find fine polenta- regular is too coarse)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Ground Cardamom
- Zest of 2 small lemons
- Juice of 2 small Lemons
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- For the Lemon Syrup:
- Juice of 2 Lemons
- ⅓ cup Honey
- Grease an 8" cake pan or springform with butter and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a mixing bow, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Beat the eggs into the butter mixture, one at a time.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together the almond flour, polenta, baking powder, cardamom, and lemon zest.
- Add to the wet ingredients along with the lemon juice and vanilla and beat until well combined. Scoop the batter into the preared pan and smooth the top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 320 degrees and bake for another 20-25 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and cake is golden brown on top.
- While the cake is baking, make the syrup. Place the lemon juice and honey in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and let mixture simmer for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat.
- When the cake has finished baking, remove from oven and poke holes over the top with a toothpick. Spoon the syrup over the top of the cake and allow to soak in. Let cake cool for 20 minutes in the pan. Run a knife around the edge of the cake, if necessary, and remove from pan.
- Serve warm.
Recipe adapted from Inquiringchef.com
using polenta in cake is seriously inspired. i bet the flavor is phenomenal. i can’t wait to try this recipe this spring!!
Thanks Jess! It’s one of my favorite cakes!
This cake looks like pure perfection! I absolutely love to bake with almond flour and the lemon-cardamom combo sounds like pure bliss. I’m definitely feeling inspired to bake this beauty asap! I pinky promise I’ll use grass-fed butter, too – it definitely makes cakes that much better!!
Hi , I’m a little confused,You mention almond flour, do you mean ground almond meal? Or is there actual flour made with almonds..is it possible to just finely grind fresh de-skinned dried almonds , many thanks
I use almond flour, which is essentially finely ground almonds with the skins removed. I believe almond meal still has the skins – don’t use that! =)
This is beautiful, I have a similar bundt tin and I love the simple homely cake it creates.
Thank you Angela!! Isn’t is such a fun tin!?
Just gorgeous! The combination of lemon and polenta is so lovely!
Thank you Laura!
How do you measure your almond flour? I know some people lightly spoon it in and level it, like one would with a wheat flour, and others gently pack it into the measuring cup. Do you have weights for those who choose to weigh ingredients?
I gently pack it. I don’t have weights, sorry!
Thanks! This helps-can’t wait to make it!