Orange Cardamom Polenta Cake With Chocolate Sauce Recipes

Steps:

• Put the whole oranges in a pan, cover with water and boil, covered, for 1 hr until a knife easily pierces them. If the oranges won't stay under the water, place a small saucepan lid directly on top to keep them submerged. Remove the oranges from the water and cool, then quarter and remove any seeds and obvious pith where the stalk was. Blitz the oranges to a rough purée with a hand blender or in a food processor and put in a large bowl.
• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3 and line the base and sides of a 21cm loose-bottomed cake tin with baking parchment. Beat the cardamom, xylitol and eggs into the orange purée, then mix the ground almonds with the polenta, flour and baking powder, and fold in until well blended. Scrape the mixture into the tin, level the top and bake for 40 mins.
• After 40 minutes, scatter over the almonds, quickly return to the oven and bake 20-25 mins more until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the tin and leave to cool. Serve sliced as a cake, or with Greek yogurt or cream as a dessert.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch springform pan and dust with flour.
• Combine butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Beat eggs in a separate bowl until light and foamy and mix into the butter-sugar mixture.
• Sift flour, polenta, and baking powder together. Fold into the batter. Stir in rum, lemon juice, orange juice, lemon zest, and orange zest. Pour batter into the prepared springform pan and level with a spatula.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Cover top with aluminum foil if it starts browning too quickly.
• Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Run a table knife around the edges to loosen. Remove carefully onto a serving plate or cooling rack. Let cool completely.
• Stir orange juice and orange marmalade together in a saucepan. Heat over low heat until it has reduced to a thick sauce, 5 to 10 minutes. Slice cake and drizzle with orange sauce.

Steps:

• In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the orange zest and beat for another minute or two to pulverize the zest in order to release the natural orange oil. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Break open the cardamom pods and grind the little black seeds into a powder with a pestle and morter and add to the mixer. Grind the almonds in the bowl of a food processor. Add the cornmeal and continue pulse-choping the almonds into a fine crumb. Add, along with the baking powder to the mixture. Juice the oranges and pour into the mixer. Spoon into a 9-inch springform tin lined with parchment paper. Smooth the top with a rhubber spatula. Bake in a preheated 325 degrees F oven for 50 minutes. Combine the orange and lemon juice with the honey and set aside until the cake has finished baking. For the chocolate sauce, combine in a saucepan the chocolate, cocoa and water. Heat gently to melt the chocolate. Once melted add the sugar, corn syrup and butter. Stir to dissolve the sugar and melt the butter. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes. Add vanilla. Once the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and pour over the syrup. A light trick of the trade: Never pour a hot syrup on a hot cake, or a cold syrup on a cold cake as you will end up with a soggy cake. But a cold syrup on a hot cake with yield perfect results. Serve the cake in wedges with a ladle of chocolate sauce on the plate. Creme fraiche is a welcome addition as it adds richness whilst its acidity balances the sweet syrup. The citris-aromatic cake works well with the sublte flavors within the chocolate. Different brands of chocolate yield very different results. Some of my favorites are: Schphenberger for its fruit, Callebaut with its coffee back note, and Green and Blacks which has both flavors mentioned.