Orange and Polenta Cake

Hi everyone!
Today I baked an Orange and Polenta cake.  It contains no flour or wheat products so would be perfect for people with a gluten intolerance.

Fresh out of the oven!

Delicious!

The recipe is from Delicious magazine (I have the "Sweet" cookbook which is a compilation of dessert and cake recipes from the magazine), although, I used a slightly different method of making the syrup.

- To begin, place two large oranges (I used naval oranges because they have no seeds) into a pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for an hour (you may need to top up the water, so the oranges stay almost covered in water).
- Remove the oranges from the pan and whiz them in the food processor or Bamix.  Reserve about 100-150ml of the boiling liquid.
- Allow the orange puree to cool down a little (you don't want to end up with scrambled eggs when you add the eggs in).  I transferred the puree to a mixing bowl at this point because I was using the processor attachment of the Bamix which is quite small, but if you are using a food processor you could leave it in there and add the rest of the ingredients in the processor.
- Add 6 eggs, 150g of polenta, 150g of almond meal and 250g of caster sugar.  The recipe also called for 1tsp of chopped fresh rosemary, however I omitted this as our rosemary bush died a while ago (I didn't know this so I hadn't bought any).
- Grease and line a 23cm springform pan (just line the base, not the sides).
- Pour the mixture into the pan, sprinkle some demerara sugar (or coffee crystals if you don't have demerara sugar) over the top and bake at 180C for about1 hour (mine needed about 10 minutes extra time in the oven).

 - Cool for a few minutes in the tin before turning onto a plate.

 - To make the syrup, add half a cup of caster sugar to the orange water and stir over a low heat until the sugar dissolves.  Bring to a boil and boil without stirring for about 5 minutes or until the syrup thickens.  Add in a dash of orange flavoured liquer (e.g. Cointreau).  The recipe used plain water and added orange zest, but I decided to use the boiling liquid as that has a lovely orange flavour in it already, so I didn't want to waste it.

 - Drizzle the syrup over the top and serve.  It can be served warm or cold.  When the syrup cools it forms a lovely crunchy crust over the top.  It also reheats well in the microwave.

Thanks for reading!

Afternoon Tea

Yesterday, we had a few friends over to afternoon tea as a "mini" birthday celebration (due to almost everyone except me being bunkered down in study mode).  I baked a few treats for the afternoon tea (with my sister's new purple Kitchenaid mixer).

Left: Orange and almond cake, right: carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

I baked two of the carrot cakes and took the other one with me to the Whittlesea Show today as afternoon tea for the rest of the St John first aiders.  Saw many interesting things at the show.... including a Shetland pony dressed up as Spiderman (the actual horse was wearing a costume, as well as the kid riding it - who was very upset when the lady announcing the event mistakenly called him Superman, it was very cute!!!)  According to a horse riding friend, "dress up" equestrian events are not unusual, but I'd never seen anything like it!

Anyway, back to the afternoon tea, I often get compliments on my carrot cake and it has become my "go to" recipe if I have to bring something to share.  So here is the recipe (adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics):

 - Mix together 1&1/2 cups of brown sugar and 3/4 cup of vegetable oil or canola oil.  You could even use olive oil.
- Add three eggs.
- Add 1&1/2 cups sifted SR flour, 1 tsp bicarb soda (or substitue plain flour and baking powder if you don't have SR flour).
- Add 1 large tsp each of ginger and cinammon and 1/2 large tsp each of nutmeg and ground cloves.  I like to be generous with the spices, but you can adjust to your own taste.
- Add 3-4 medium sized peeled, washed and grated carrots.
- Bake at 180 degrees (celcius) for around 40 minutes (or until cooked) if you bake it in two loaf tins or around 60 minutes (or until cooked) if you bake it in a larger square tin.
- For the icing, I just mix together some cream cheese, cream and icing sugar.
- I like to sprikle pepitas on the top but we didn't have any.  You can also use chopped nuts (e.g. pecan) or you can add chopped nuts, sultanas etc. to the mixture before you bake it.  I tend to avoid adding nuts when cooking for a crowd due to allergies however I think they add some nice texture.

We also had macarons.  Unfortunately I can't take credit for these.

And "punch" (non-alcoholic due to P-plate drivers) - just some quartered strawberries, roughly chopped mint and lemonade.  Very simple but quite nice!

All in all, it has been a very busy last few days for me (exams, lunch, shopping and baking on Friday; work and entertaining on Saturday and then St John first aid volunteering all day today).  I am looking forward to a nice big sleep in.

Thanks for reading!