Monday 18 April 2011

Citrus Cornmeal Cake

This is another simple cake, along the lines of a pound cake, made with olive oil rather than butter. The cake batter is flavoured with orange zest and juice, and lemon zest. To increase the sunny yellow colour, which isn't as good in the photo as in real life, I replaced 1/3 of the flour in this recipe from Mark Hix with fine cornmeal. I also made a small amount of lemon syrup with the juice of the lemon and 2 tablespoons of sugar, to pour over the hot cake, which increased the lemony flavour.

I used an 8" round tin which was almost filled with the batter, giving some cause for concern. It did mean the finished cake was nice and deep though. Using the smallest suggested tin meant the cake took a few minutes longer to cook than suggested in the recipe - I think it was in the oven for nearer to 55 minutes, before I was satisfied that the centre was cooked, and I had to cover it with foil for the last 15 minutes. It sunk slightly in the centre, but not because of under-baking - there was no change in texture through the cake, which was very light. There were arguments here as to the stronger flavour - some thought it was a lemon cake, but the orange flavour was the stronger one for others.

I kept the cake plain, because I wanted to serve it as a dessert as well as a cake, but the lemon juice could have been used to make a glacé icing rather than a syrup. As a dessert, I served it with rhubarb and thick Greek yogurt again; I'm making the most of my home grown rhubarb!

5 comments:

Choclette said...

This does indeed look like a lovely light cake. Sounds like a good one to keep people guessing. Our rhubarb is still not up to being picked this year - very frustrating when I used to have so much of it.

Caroline said...

Looks really good, I've been meaning to try an olive oil cake recipe for ages. What kind of olive oil did you use? Lighter or extra virgin?

I'm a bit dubious that he gives the tin size as 20-24cm and then only differs the baking time by 5min! Did you find it was done in 45 min?

Suelle said...

C - thanks for reminding me! The cake did take a bit longer than the recipe suggested, and it needed covering for the last 15 minutes. I've edited my post, as I should have mentioned it.

I usually use a basic olive oil, because of the expense. I'd love to try a strongly flavoured EVOO in a plain cake, but might have to save up to buy the oil! LOL!

Choclette - our rhubarb seems to be on the rampage. We split two large crowns a couple of winters ago and now have 5 in production.

Katie said...

Looks gorgeous and very light and fluffy. I love the flavour of zingy lemon in a cake like this. So fresh and summery

Snowy said...

It looks very moreish and light. Definitely one to make.
I love thubarb, so it's on the list to plant in this garden.