Orange Almond Polenta Cake

These days Nigella Lawson features in my favorite Brits list, along with J.K.Rowling. (Of course those who've traipsed with me on my April sojourn, would know about my other favs. and no, Kate Middleton is not one of them.) In any case, her lemon polenta cake was one of the first of her recipes that I tried. But today I didn't have lemons and I really wanted something sweeter and less tart. Also I didnt want to add any butter. So I varied the recipe around and it turned out gorgeous, rustic, and yummy. I simply had to share! So here it is:
For the cake:
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp orange extract
2 cups almond flour. (I had only one cup of almond flour, so I added a cup of AP flour instead. By the way, I ground my own almond flour using roasted almonds.)
3/4 cup polenta
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Orange zest

For the syrup:
2/3 cup confectioners sugar
1 Tblspn orange marmalade
1/3 cup orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line the base of a 9 inch spring form pan with parchment paper and grease its sides lightly or spray lightly and flour the pan.
Beat the eggs and sugar, add oil and the extract
Mix the dry ingredients together: Almond flour, AP flour if using, polenta and baking powder. Add it to the wet ingredients. Add the orange zest. Pour into the pan and bake until an inserted fork comes out clean.
Meanwhile prepare the syrup: Heat the ingredients for the syrup together until the sugar dissolves.

Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan. Prick the cake all over, and pour the syrup over the cake.  Do this when while the cake is still warm and in the pan.

Let cool completely before removing out of the pan, sprinkle confectioners sugar on top. This is a dense, rustic cake and completely satisfying. Cut a slice and enjoy the nuttiness of the almond, crunch of the polenta and the sweet citrussy notes of the orange.

Contessa's chocolate cake with mandarin hearts

Chocolate cake cravings are uncontrollable. When you want to have it, you got to have it. So today I baked, different because I rarely bake, its very difficult for me to stick to exact quantities.

This is a take on Barefoot Contessa's chocolate cake.

Dry ingredients:
1 and 3/4 cups A.P. flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients:
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
 2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
four shots espresso

1/2 to 3/4 can preserved mandarin

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Butter a bundt cake pan, and flour it.

Sift the dry ingredients together, and combine them thoroughly. Combine the wet ingredients and then add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine at low speed. Add the espresso. Pour half the batter into the pan, lay mandarin slices on top and pour the remaining batter. Bake for about 45 min.

Next time I shall add 1/2 cup toasted and coarsely chopped almonds. The cake batter is a bit thin. But the cake turns out really moist and very chocolatey.

Chocolate truffles with rummy cherried hearts

Several of my close friends are incurable chocoholics. So when I came across the barefoot contessa's wonderful truffle recipe, I knew that Ina had her finger on the sweet beats of my chocolate loving friends' hearts. I made it a couple of times, each time leaving behind a trail of happy smiles. And then I thought of a twist for it, so here goes:


1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate
1/2 lb semi sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons orange flavored liqueur
1 tablespoon prepared coffee
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sugar
Cocoa powder
Cherries soaked in rum

Chop the chocolates finely. Place them in a mixing bowl.
Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just boils. Turn off the heat and allow the cream to sit for a few seconds. Pour the cream into the bowl with chocolate. Slowly stir the cream and chocolates together until the chocolate is completely melted. (If all the chocolate does not melt, heat the bowl over a water bath and stir till the chocolate melts) Whisk in the orange flavored liqueur, coffee, and vanilla. Set aside - you can pop the mixture in the fridge for a little while till they are stiff enough to be molded.

Spoon round balls of the chocolate mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper after adding a half a rum soaked pitted cherry in each. Roll each ball of chocolate in your hands to roughly make it round. Roll in a mix of sugar and cocoa powder. Refrigerate.
Rum soaked cherries: Soak fresh red cherries in rum, add a bit of sugar and store them in a Mason jar in the fridge. They will be ready to use after about a month or so. Remove the cherry pits before stuffing the truffles. (They are darned yummy on their own as well!)
PHOTO: Fort Collins, 2008