I have always been a romantic person at heart. Not in the silly, commercially portrayed way we see nowadays. But in the deep, secretive and sometimes lonely way that makes you think of ideal people, situations or environments you wish to surround yourself with. In a way that makes you saddened when you realise that the world is not the safe, beautiful and pure environment you dreamed of. Very often I think of myself as being Amelie Poulain, living in my own fictional world, reading books that flourish my spirit and trying to do justice to people who deserve it. Sometimes I feel like I want to make right all the wrongs in this world, and then quickly realise the impossibility in that feeling.
A few days ago it was Valentine's Day. A day to celebrate love in a rather staged way. Buy flowers and chocolate to show your love to some. I am more of a dyi girl and always think of something to make with my own hands. Like the recipe I posted for those mini Red Velvet cakes the other day. Simple things that mean the world. However, this year I didn't have a lot of time to make something (we ate the red velvet cakes a bit earlier) and I decided to make a cake I had in mind the next day after Valentine's. We enjoyed it in the same way or even more!
Citrus fruit are after apples one of my favourite fall/winter fruit. They are so versatile, such as apples, and can be used in sweet as well as savoury recipes. This makes them perfect for any occasion. This time I used them in a cake with a strong presence of oranges. The cake itself is very special, since it contains polenta and ground hazelnuts. The original recipe calls for ground almonds, but I like to experiment with recipes and I wasn't going to let this one untested, just because I didn't have any almonds hanging around in my kitchen. If you don't know polenta, it is a grain from corn used and eaten very much in Northern Italy. Usually they make a sort of porridge from the polenta, adding grated parmesan and lots of butter. It's amazing what those Italians can make!
But this time, polenta plays a special role in a sweet recipe. We use something similar in Greek recipes, but it comes from wheat. We make a sweet dessert called "χαλβάς" (halvas) around lent. Maybe I will make a recipe for this as well, now that we are approaching Easter.
Orange Polenta Cake with Yoghurt (adapted by this recipe )
ingredients (for 8 to 10 persons)
100gr softened butter (room temperature)
150gr brown sugar
50gr whole wheat flour
50gr white flour
50gr grounded hazelnuts (or almonds)
3 medium eggs
130gr polenta
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons honey
80gr greek strained yoghurt
4 tablespoons orange juice (or juice from one orange)
2 tablespoons orange zest and more for decorating/frosting
frosting:
1 cup heavy cream
orange and lemon zest (just a little)
How do I make it?
1. In a large bowl of a standing mixer or other bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until they become a smooth mixture. Next add the eggs one at a time and mix on medium speed until the eggs are well incorporated.
2. Add the flours and baking powder into the mixture and mix again. Then, add inside the polenta, yoghurt, hazelnuts, orange zest, honey and orange juice. Mix again on slow speed until you have a nice smooth batter.
3. Preheat your oven to 180C and prepare a medium size round pan with a baking sheet. When ready, add the cake batter into the pan and then smooth the surface with a spatula. If you want, hold the sides of the pan and tap it on a hard surface so that the batter surface is smoother.
4. Bake your cake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean. Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool completely before topping it with the frosting.
5. To make the frosting, simply beat the heavy cream with the zests until you get a whipped cream. Taking a spatula, top the cake with the whipped cream evenly around the top surface of the cake and top with some more zest if you'd like!
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