Polenta Cake

Photo: flickr user Jeff Belmonte

Ingredients

cup Sugar

teaspoon Sugar

1 stk butter, softened, unsalted

2 Egg yolks, room temp

1 teaspoon Orange zest, finely grated

teaspoon Lemon zest, finely grated

Vanilla beans, or 1 tsp van extract

cup Natural almonds

cup Yellow cornmeal, or course polenta

cup Cornstarch (yes ¼ cup!)

teaspoon Baking powder

4 Egg whites, room temp

2 teaspoons Confectioner's sugar

Sweetened whipped cream

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325. Generously butter an 8" X 1" square baking pan.

In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the sugar and the butter, egg yolks and orange and lemon zests. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into mixture, or add extract. Using an electric mixer, beat at high speed until smooth, light and creamy, about 2 minutes.

In a food processor, finely grind the almonds with the cornmeal/polenta, cornstarch and baking powder.

In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon sugar until they form soft peaks. Gently fold the dry ingredients and 1/2 the beaten egg whites into the butter mixture; then fold in the remaining egg whites unti just incorporated.

Gently scrape the batter evenly into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer pan to a cooling rack for 10 minutes; then invert the cake on the rack and let cool completely. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar, cut into 6 pieces and serve with topping.

Richard Sax