Monday, August 30, 2010

Lemon Polenta Cake with Pouring Cream

Nothing goes better with cake than new toys. Right. What? It turns out Eric is obsessed with finding reasons to by new toys. Tools, gadgets, gizmos, every project or endeavor seems to need just one more. Want to put new floors in? Have to buy a nail gun. Fix the fence, need a new saw. Fix the other fence, gotta go get a different saw. Start a food blog? Must get a new camera, new lens, new flash, new tripod, new computer, another new camera, one more lens... and you get the picture. Sometimes the new toy tool costs more than the rest of the project but ends up in the cart because it has to. This is exactly the kind of thing that puts a real gleam in Eric's eye whenever theres a new project or something gets broken, which is exactly what happened to our camera flash last week. We were getting ready to start shooting this Polenta cake when the camera took a tumble and the flash when flying into about thirty six million different pieces.  While bits where still flying around the room was online looking for a replacement, as a broken gadget meant it was time to upgrade to something bigger, faster and better.
It was during the week or so we spent waiting for the replacement that we came to realize how much of a difference the flash really made. We like to get action shots, liquids getting poured, batter getting beaten, sliced things getting... sliced. The additional flash really actively freezes the action, giving a super clear picture in great focus, something the built in flash just can't do. When Eric was processing this weeks pictures there was a clear level of frustration as many of the shots we consider our staple "bread and butter" photographs were blurred or the action was not quite frozen. Even though we were pretty disappointed about how the pictures came out, the cake did its part and made the day. Yet another use for lemons (fast becoming the 2nd most used ingredient here, behind butter) this cake was a tangy, textury wonderland for your mouth. We mixed our preserved lemons with a regular lemon for the flavor and the cornmeal give it a super unique texture. We're big food-texture people so when the two don't pair well, neither of us tends to like the dish. In this case the cornmeal really changes each bite, providing a different experience bite to bite.





Lemon Polenta Cake with Pouring Cream
What You Will Need

4-6 pieces of preserved lemon (enough to equal one whole lemon)
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups almonds
1 cup sugar 
1/2 cup olive oil 
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 large eggs
1 lemon
1 pint of light cream for pouring

Preheat oven to 350*

Grease a 9 inch cake pan and line with parchment paper

Using a food processor, pulse the almonds with the sugar until the nuts are broken down and the mixture becomes grainy.  Remove any seeds from the preserved lemon pieces and pulse into the sugar mixture until a heavy puree forms.  Add remaining ingredients and pulse just until they are combined.  

Pour into cake pan and top with slices of lemons 

Bake for about 50 minutes, let cool for 15 minutes and serve warm and pour a little bit of cool light cream over top.  

adapted from www.threetastes.com

25 comments:

  1. OH. MY. GOD. My mom and I LOVE polenta. I am making this ASAP. (And ps, I'm really jealous that you have your new lighting set-up in your kitchen. I'm going to have to talk about Jesse about doing something similar, but maybe near my closet ;)

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  2. Your pictures still looke good enough to make me want to eat the cake! That's the goal, right???
    I do need to get myself a good offset flash, I have a hard time getting decent photos sometimes!

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  3. That cake looks amazing and I bet it tastes even better. I just switched from a point and shoot to a DSLR and I have noticed a change. Still need a lot more lessons and practice with it. :)

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  4. Wow, that looks terrific! I love polenta and have a hard time getting my family to agree...but I bet this would sway 'em!

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  5. This cake looks so fresh and pretty, thanks for sharing!

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  6. This looks so good. I Love anything with lemon. I have not made a polenta cake yet, but it is so on my list to do! Thanks.

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  7. Gorgeous looking cake so moist and crumbly and I think your pictures are terrific!

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  8. How yummy, I love the addition of the preserved lemons.

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  9. Well, I'm from Veneto, the region of polenta in Italy. And I love lemon in desserts. So seems like this cake is perfect for me. Wonderful pics!

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  10. gorgeous colours and photos! And lemon is my favourite dessert flavour...I'm a new fan! Theresa

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  11. I love cornmeal cakes with any kind of citrus. Yum

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  12. I keep hinting at the hubby for a new flash! I wish we weren't so poor ;) This cake looks absolutely fabulous!! Another must try!

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  13. The only preserved lemon I know of are the Moroccan ones, preserved in salt. Is that what you used? Congrats on the new toy.

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  14. Lovely photos, and an even lovelier cake! Have aome leftover polenta lying around at home and this is perfect!
    Robyn

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  15. Great time to ask this question! Do you scrape the extra salt off your preserved lemons before you use them? If there is any salt left...Always wondered how people end up using them in sweet dishes. Beautiful cake!

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  16. @Carol: Yes, a couple months back I preserved lemons two ways...One with just salt and the other with some peppercorns,cloves, and a cinnamon stick. For this recipe I used the basic salt jar.

    @The Duo Dishes: Most of the salt breaks down and when sitting in the lemon juice creates a syrup like consistency. There is a little salt still on the bottom of the jar but no longer on the lemons themselves. Surprisingly, the cake was not salty at all, I was a bit skeptical about these preserved lemons as well but it turned out great!

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  17. I have never used Polenta but this cakes tempts me to add this ingredient in my next shopping list. Slurpp.

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  18. This looks absolutely Ah-mazing.. flash or no flash. Your post really made me want to get a new camera.. I'm still workin with a point and shoot :/ I definitely need to try this cake!!

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  19. Too funny, I thought only my husband bought new toys for projects around the house.

    Love the cake recipe, thanks for sharing.

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  20. the preserved lemons look BEAUTIFUL. you say you are a texture person, can you describe the rind of the preserved lemon? i simply can't imagine biting into it!

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  21. I have not ever had polenta cake, SOOOO I definitely have to try this cake, it looks fabulous!

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  22. your polenta cake is inspiring, I would love to try making that! your images are beautiful, and hey boys and their toys.....you gotta have the right tool for the right job!

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  23. I can virtually taste it already, I think! Can't wait to make the real thing.

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  24. Everything I like about a good post in this one and I am mentally eating it all the way ( those crispy sweet edges melting under the cream with the lemon coming through). Am a new convert to polenta in cake this year and love it with lemon.

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