Polenta and Almond Cake – gluten free

Polenta is a traditional Northern Italian dish: a creamy warm porridge made with coarsely ground cornmeal, made from yellow corn. Polenta is a side dish that is usually served next to a meat stew (spezzatino).

In Northern Italy we like Polenta so much that we use it to bake cakes too 😉 Today I decided to mix the grainy and creamy polenta texture with almonds and ricotta in order to create a very moist and delicate cake. Considering all the ingredients the cake is super healthy and nutritious, perfect for an after school snack or a breakfast.

The cake is naturally gluten free as polenta doesn’t contain gluten.

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Polenta and Almond Cake – gluten free

Ingredients

• 4.8 oz. polenta flour 125g
• 5 oz. almonds 140g
• 9 oz. ricotta 250g
• 1 stick/8 Tbsp butter 115g
• 1/3 cup honey 130gr
• 4 eggs
• zest 1 lemon
• 1/2 Tbsp vanilla
• one handful almonds 40g
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven at 170C/340F.
2. Place the almonds in a food processor and mix them in order to obtain a grainy flour
   
3. 
4. In one bowl mix the melted butter with the honey using an electric whisk.
   
5. Add the lemon zest and the vanilla, whisk.
   
6. Divide the egg whites from the yolks.
7. Add the yolks to the butter/honey mix, whisk.
8. Add the ricotta, whisk.
   
9. Add the almond flour, whisk.
10. Add the polenta flour and the baking powder, whisk.
    
11. In a separate bowl place the egg whites and a pinch of salt. Whisk the egg whites to soft peak.
    
12. Using a wooden spoon slowly and delicately add the egg whites to the batter.
    
13. Place the batter in a cake pan, I used a 9 inch spring form cake pan.
14. Sprinkle on top one handful of sliced almonds.
    
15. Bake for 50 minutes
16. Enjoy!