This cake evolved from a Nigella recipe and a rainy afternoon activity with Isaac, who is rather partial to chocolate cake and munching on walnuts while mummy mixes (many batches of banana cake from spotty bananas have meant walnut munching is now a baking staple).
I didn’t intend for it to be a polenta cake but had no ground almonds in (shocker for me) and was amazed by the result. I also didn’t intend it to be dairy free but my butter was in the fridge and I couldn’t be bothered to dirty a pan melting some.
So here it is. I just made a little cake which struggled to make it to day 2!
Naomi was happily sat in her chair watching proceedings so it is fully family proof!
Ingredients:
- 30g cocoa (I used Green & Blacks)
- 90 ml freshly boiled water
- Generous tsp vanilla extract
- 100g fine polenta (cornmeal) – Nigella’s original recipe uses ground almonds so you could try a mixture
- 100ml olive oil (light – you could also use sunflower)
- 1/3 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 pinch salt
- 100g coconut sugar (this is what makes it sugar free since coconut sugar is GI neutral but you could use unrefined sugar if you don’t have any)
- pinch of salt
- 2 large eggs
Method:
Combine the boiled water and cocoa in a small boil until they are a cream like consistency.
In a separate bowl mix together the polenta, salt and bicarb.
Whisk together the eggs, vanilla, olive oil and sugar for a couple of minutes until they are really thick and light.
Finally combine all 3 mixtures maintaining as much air as possible
I used an 8″ lined, round sandwich tin.
Cook at Gas Mark 3 (170) for 20-30 minutes or until just coming away from the sides.
Et voila!
alittlefitter 