In my view you can never have enough recipes for cherries or polenta cakes, so here is a winning combination from Nigel Slater.
Ingredients
- 220 g butter
- 220 g caster sugar
- 200 g cherries
- 180 g ground almonds
- 220 g fine polenta
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 lemon
- 3 large free range eggs
- For the syrup
- 400 g cherries
- 3 tbsp honey
- 160 ml elderflower cordial
- 160 ml elderflower cordial
Servings:
Instructions
- Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Line the base of a 20cm cake tin with baking parchment.
- Dice the butter and put it in the bowl of a food mixer with the caster sugar and beat until light and creamy. Halve and stone the 200g of cherries.
- Mix together the ground almonds, fine polenta and the baking powder. Grate the zest from the lemon and stir into the polenta. Squeeze the juice from the lemon into a small bowl. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them lightly.
- Add the beaten egg to the butter and sugar mixture, beating continuously, adding a little of the polenta mixture should it start to curdle. Fold in the remaining polenta mixture and the lemon juice.
- Spoon half the batter into the lined cake tin, add the cherries, then the remaining batter and smooth the surface.
- Bake for 35 minutes, then lower the heat to 160C/gas mark 4 and bake for further 25 minutes until the cake is lightly firm to the touch.
- While the cake bakes, make the syrup. Halve and stone the 400g of cherries. Warm the elderflower cordial and honey in a small pan, then add the cherries and let them simmer for 5-7 minutes until the fruit has given up some of its juice.
- When the cake is ready, remove from the oven, then pierce all over with a skewer or knitting needle.
- Spoon some of the syrup from the cherries over the surface so it runs down through the holes into the crumb of the cake, then leave to cool.
- Remove the cake from its tin; serve with the cherry compote and, if you like some cream or crème fraîche.
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