Ingredients
- 200g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 200g soft brown sugar
- 1 orange, zest and juice
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)
- 4 free-range eggs, beaten
- 200g blanched almonds, toasted in a dry pan and ground until fine (or use ground almonds)
- 100g coarse polenta
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 oranges, juice only
- 100g caster sugar
- 4 cardamon pods
- 1 orange, peeled and sliced into rounds
- brown sugar to bruleé
- 200g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 200g soft brown sugar
- 1 orange, zest and juice
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)
- 4 free-range eggs, beaten
- 200g blanched almonds, toasted in a dry pan and ground until fine (or use ground almonds)
- 100g coarse polenta
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 oranges, juice only
- 100g caster sugar
- 4 cardamon pods
- 1 orange, peeled and sliced into rounds
- brown sugar to bruleé
Preheat the oven to 160°C/300°F/gas 3.
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the orange juice, zest and vanilla and beat again. Add your eggs little by little so not to curdle the mixture.
Toast your almonds in a dry pan until golden and then blitz in a food processor until fine. This will add an extra depth of nutty flavour to your polenta cake. Alternatively, just use ready ground almonds. Add to your mixture with the polenta and baking powder and fold through.
Decant into a lined cake tin and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the juice of 2 oranges with 100g caster sugar and 4 cardamon pods to a pan on low heat. Allow the ingredients to melt before turning the heat up slightly and thickening the sauce into a glossy syrup.
Also, peel and slice up another orange into rounds. Sprinkle each round with brown sugar and blast with a blow torch to bruleé the top. These can be used for a tasty decoration!
When your cake comes out of the oven and is still warm, prick it all over and pour on your syrup. Allow cooling in the tin before decorating with your orange rounds, slicing and serving.