Hello my lovelies and welcome to the 5th edition to my Bake Off Baking series on the old blog. Week Five involved the bakers attempting cake without sugar, bread without gluten and ice cream without dairy in the form of free form week. I quite enjoyed the challenge of this week searching for sugar free cake recipes as for individuals with allergies they can't eat your bog standard flour, eggs, butter and sugar all in one cake so it it's important to find alternatives as a life without cake would be a very sad one. Also, for the health conscious among you all this will appeal as a sugar free cake must be better for you then a sugar cake which justifies two slices instead of one surely? When researching sugar free cakes the majority seemed to be banana bread, carrot cake or citrus cakes. It's kind of difficult to put a spin on a banana or carrot cake without changing it from a banana or carrot cake so I plumped for a citrus cake. I adore lemon cake it always tastes light and refreshing and I haven't eaten it for a while so I plumped for lemon. With the cakes being sugar free you need a strong flavour fruit for taste as well as sweetness. I remember baking a lemon and pistachio cake with my gran many years ago which I loved so I thought that I would incorporate pistachios into the cake for a bit of texture and crunch as it is a very gooey and moist cake with the glaze which isn't a bad thing in my book. My aunty recently baked an orange and polenta cake over the summer which was gorgeous and where I first discovered polenta but I have never baked with it before so now seemed like the ideal opportunity to test it out, killing two birds with one stone this week. I believe that polenta is a type of grain yet I never realised how 'grainy' it actually is before if that makes any sense. I was also surprised to the bright yellow colour it holds. To sweeten my cake instead of sugar I thought honey would be an easy option and after visiting a local market at the weekend and seeing traditional Sussex honey I knew my little baby was complete and all set to go.
I adapted Tamal's Honey and Grapefruit Polenta Cake recipe which seemed to go down a treat on the bake off to my own but the cake is based on his recipe. I opted for a honey glaze for the topping as the cake mixture itself is a little more drier then usual which I believe is down to the polenta. It's a strange one because as the cake is only one tier it is a little dense yet it's still really light to eat. Personally I love the texture the polenta gives the cake and would definitely try baking with it again. I opted for a honey drizzle which keeps the cake really moist and full of flavour. It also gives the cake a beautiful shine to it. What I would say is that when you tuck in to this beauty you will need a fork as it's very gooey and sticky but I always think that those are the best kind of cakes. The aroma you get whilst this little beauty is baking is so good there aren't words to describe it. Imagine homely comforts of your Mum baking on a wet and cold Sunday afternoon and times it by one thousand. This cake is packed full of flavour I would definitely try giving this ago if your looking for new inspiration.
Ingredients
200g unsalted butter
150g ground almonds
70g polenta
80g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
140g honey
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
For the honey glaze:
4 tbsp honey
juice of 2 lemons
50g pistachios
Method
1) Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin and preheat your oven to 170°C/150°Fan/ Gas Mark 3
2) In a bowl mix together your flour, polenta, bicarbonate of soda and ground almonds
3) In a separate large mixing bowl, beat the butter to a smooth, pale consistency
4) Add your honey and lemon zest to the butter and whisk in
5) Gradually whisk in your eggs and dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Before adding eggs I always whisk the eggs together separately in another bowl before whisking them in with the main ingredients. When adding the eggs and dry ingredients I did this in two stages to prevent the mixture curdling. Simply by adding half of the eggs and half of the dry ingredients and whisking together followed by the remaining eggs and dry ingredients once incorporated
6) Bake your cake for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean once inserted into the middle of the cake.
7) Once baked remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool leaving the cake in it's tin
8) To make the syrup and glaze for the top, heat the lemon juice and remaining honey in a saucepan over a low heat to get a smooth and runny consistency. You may want to adjust the amount of honey until you are happy with the sweetness level
9) Prick the surface of the cake all over using a skewer, I think I inserted the skewer to about half way through the cake
10) Pour over 3/4 of the honey glaze to soak the cake and prevent it from drying, similar to a drizzle cake really
11) Chop the pistachio nuts and sprinkle on top of the cake, this doesn't need to be precise I think I roughly chopped one nut into three or four pieces
12) Pour over the remaining glaze to give a pretty shine to the cake. I left the cake in it's tin for a couple of hours to absorb all of the juices and to stop them from leaking out. Once absorbed you can remove the cake from the tin and indulge away
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post my lovelies and let me know if you attempt this recipe. I would also love to know any good sugar free recipes that you know and would like to share. Pastry week sees us next attempting a frangipani tart which excites me immensely as of course that means almonds and I adore frangipani so I'll see how I'm inspired for that one. I hope you are enjoying this baking series on my blog. I am loving creating and baking new ideas and sharing them afterwards. I also think that so far friends and family have been enjoying all these new baking discoveries but let's not tempt fait and speak too soon on that one.
Week One: Cakes: Raspberry And Almond Madera Cake
Week Two: Biscuits: Coconut And White Chocolate Biscotti
Week Three: Bread: Sun Dried Tomato And Basil Soda Bread
Week Four: Desserts: Amaretto Creme Brûlée
XXX
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