Blood Orange Almond Polenta Cake | Celia's Saucer

From the wonderful Sophie at  

The Cake Hunter

Blood Orange & Almond Polenta Cake

(adapted from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi)

200g unsalted butter, softened

380g caster sugar (save 100g for the syrup)

zest and juice of 1 blood orange

zest and juice of 1 lemon

170g ground almonds

110g polenta

5 medium eggs, beaten

100g plain flour

pinch of salt

strips of orange zest, to garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/160 C Fan/350 F. Grease and line a 23cm springform tin and set aside.
2. Beat the butter, 280g sugar and zest in a mixer on a slow speed. Don't overwork it. Mix the ground almonds and polenta and add half to the butter mixture. Continue mixing to just combine.
3. Gradually add the eggs as the mixer is running, scrape down the sides a few times. Add the remaining almonds and polenta with the flour and salt and combine until smooth.
4. Spread the batter into the tin and smooth out on top. Bake for 50-60 minutes and remove when a cocktail stick comes out clean.
5. About 5 minutes before it's ready to come out the oven, put the citrus juices (it should be about 120ml) and the remaining 100g of sugar in a small pan and bring to a boil until the sugar dissolves.
6. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, brush the hot syrup over the cake until it has all soaked through. Leave the cake to cool completely before removing from the tin. Garnish with the orange zest and serve.
   Serve with Jasmine Silver Needle Tea, from JING Tea.