rhubarb + polenta cake

We had a playdate on Friday and I wanted to make something I hadn't tried before (I get bored very easily!).  So after a quick flick through a couple of recipe books I decided on this rhubarb and polenta (cornmeal) cake from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess.

This cake is yum!  It's pretty quick to make and would work for a morning tea or a desert.  I served it with a little bit of cream but the book includes a recipe for a muscat-marscapone cream that sounds like it would be really good.  Will have to try that next time.  The cake is nice and moist and the polenta makes it a little bit crumbly.  If you're on a gluten-free diet I think this is a recipe that would work really well if you substituted the plain flour for a gluten-free flour.

Rhubarb + Polenta cake

500g rhubarb

300g caster sugar

150g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

155g fine polenta (cornmeal) 

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

125g butter, softened 

250g thick natural yoghurt

Butter and line a 23cm springform tin.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees. 

Wash and trim the rhubarb and cut into 1/2 cm slices. Put into a bowl and add 100g of the sugar. Don’t let the rhubarb stand for more than 30 minutes or there will be too much liquid.

Mix together the flour, bicarb, salt, cinnamon and polenta. With a fork, beat the eggs with the vanilla in a measuring jug or small bowl. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the remaining sugar and gradually add the egg and vanilla mixture, beating while you do so. Then add the flour/polenta mixture alternately with the yoghurt., don’t over mix.

Finally, add the rhubarb together with its sugary juices, folding in to mix, and then spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour until the cake surface springs back when pressed gently.  You might need to cover the cake with a bit of foil after about 40 minutes to prevent the top from going too brown. 

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes before attempting to turn out.