Orange Polenta Cake

During this time of lockdown due to the Corona Virus one thing I'm doing more of is baking, cooking and gardening. Tasks that I used to find a chore are now a welcome distraction from our new monotonous routine of homelife. 

With all four of us spending the last four weeks confined to our little house, and trying to juggle working from home whilst also overseeing that our two children (aged 4 and 9) are keeping up with their school work, as well as keeping them entertained and in good spirits during this difficult time, a little cooking escapism has been really appreciated! No one ever wants to help me prepare meals so it's a little time to myself exploring a more creative side! I've even been surprised that some of my culinary creations have been well received, even by two somewhat fussy children! 

One of my most successful and popular bakes so far has been an orange polenta cake. First made due to the small amount of flour I had left in the cupboard, polenta that had been in the cupboard for ages and some sorry looking oranges that needed to be used!

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar, I've also used demara when I ran out of caster sugar, have to adapt and experiment at the moment!

4 large eggs

150g polenta

200g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

3 medium oranges or 4 or 5 small tangerines or satsumas (whatever you've got in basically!) and the skin from 1 (steamed and puréed)

Method

Steam the oranges including the skin from one in a pan with a small amount of water for about 10-15 minutes. Drain off most of the water and blend the oranges and skin until a smooth purée. I still have an Avent steam and blender that I used to make baby food when weaning which I kept because it's really useful for this sort of thing. Leave to cool. 

Heat oven to 140C (fan). 

Grease a large cake tin with butter, I used a large round cake tin about 25cm.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. If the butter is straight from the fridge, chop into cubes and give it a blast in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften it up.

Add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Add the orange purée and mix.

Add the dry ingredients flour, polenta and baking powder. Mix well with a spoon or electric hand whisk/mixer.

Transfer the mixture to the tin, spread evenly, then cook for about 45 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 

Remove from the oven and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Serve with cream or ice cream, or perfectly moist on its own.