My husband bought us the most wonderful present the other day. Really it’s for his chameleon, but I like to pretend it’s for me. I just can’t wait until it starts working its magic.
We now have our very own lemon tree! It’s being protected from the chickens so they don’t try and eat all the leaves off of it before it has a chance to fulfill it’s mission of giving me luscious beautiful fresh lemons. I used to live in a country where lemons were nearly impossible to find, so they’re rather precious to me.
I’m so in love with our baby tree that I absolutely had to share this lemon polenta cake. Can you keep a secret? This cake is gluten free. Whatevs. It’s totally delicious and lemony and heavenly with an amazing texture.
Cornmeal plus lemon syrup equals sweet sticky cake of magnificence.
And it’s all mature and sophisticated with it’s frostingless simplicity, so you can pretend to be an adult when you serve it. It’s stunning even in its lack of decadence.
I can’t wait until we have our first backyard lemons. I’ll probably do a little dance. What else can I make with them?
- 200 grams (1-3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
- 200 grams (1 cup) sugar
- 200 grams (2 cups) ground almonds
- 100 grams (3/4 cup) cornmeal
- 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3 eggs
- zest of 2 lemons
- juice of 2 lemons
- 125 grams (1 cup) powdered sugar
- Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment, and grease the sides with butter
- Preheat your oven to 350.
- With a mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Combine the almonds, cornmeal, and baking powder in a separate bowl, then mix a third of the mixture into the butter and sugar. Add an egg and combine. Continue alternating dry ingredients and eggs until everything is combined.
- Finally mix in the lemon zest.
- Transfer the batter to your pan and bake for 40 minutes until the edges start to pull away from the pan.
- Cool in the pan on a wire rack.
- In a small saucepan, boil the lemon juice and powdered sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
- With a toothpick, prick tiny holes in your cake, then pour the syrup over the cake and let it sink in.
- Once cool, remove the collar from your pan. Serve a big wedge with wine and experience pure joy.
Cake images by Monica Szczupider
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I wish we had a lemon tree! This cake looks wonderful. I love lemon desserts!
I hope it will actually grow and produce. I’m pretty excited about it. I wish I could share them with you.
What a cute little lemon tree!! And that lemon cake looks so delicious! I’ll have to share this dessert with my sister who is on a gluten free diet.
I hope she likes it!
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This looks delicious! And I’m so jealous– I don’t think lemons would grow very well in the great plains… can’t wait to try making this cake!
Well, we still haven’t got any fruit on our tree, so I’m not sure Hawaii is ideal either. Alas…
Wow what a wonderful idea to use polenta. I bet that helps keep this cake super moist and yummy. I appreciate your linking to Gluten Free & DIY Tuesdays 🙂