Polenta and lemon cake

I’ve recently started using polenta more and more and I love its versatility, it tastes great in savoury meals (polenta fries just have to be tried!) and, as you can see here, it also works brilliantly with sweet ingredients too. Here it adds a lovely, crunchy texture. The perfect bake to serve with a cup of green tea on rainy afternoons, or as a dessert, with ice cream or crème fraîche.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 75g unrefined caster sugar
• 150g Lucy Bee coconut oil, softened
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tbsp gluten-free baking powder
• 100g fine polenta
• 200g ground almonds
• Finely grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons, and 20ml juice
• Fresh sprigs of edible flowers, to decorate

For the sugar syrup

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 75g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Line a 20cm round springform cake tin with baking parchment.

2. Using an electric hand whisk, beat the sugar and coconut oil together until smooth, then add the eggs and beat until combined.

3. Stir in the baking powder, polenta, ground almonds, lemon zest and juice, then pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

4. Meanwhile, put the lemon juice and icing sugar for the sugar syrup in a small saucepan and gently warm until the syrup turns clear. Remove from the heat and set aside.

5. When the cake comes out of the oven, prick it all over with a fork and then pour the syrup over. Leave in the cake tin to cool completely before turning out onto a serving plate. Top with more sugar syrup and then finish off with sprigs of edible flowers, such as rosemary or lavender.

From Coconut Oil: Nature’s Perfect Ingredient. Recipe text © 2015 Lucy Bee Limited.