Recipe: Seville Orange Polenta Cake (GFO, DFO)

Hello, Gulls! It’s River here, and I have a recipe for you.

I’m a bit of a higgledy-piggledy cook who reads several recipes, and then combines them in my head. This works wonderfully for savoury meals, and with very varying success when it comes to cake. This, however, turned out to be quite the treat, so I thought why not share some inspiration for what can be done with the beautiful Seville marmalade oranges we have in stock right now. It also means I’ve written down a recipe, and can replicate it, yay!

This cake can be made without dairy, subbing our Naturli block for butter. I have a gluten free version of the cake which I’ve made before detailed below too. It’s a little more basic, and doesn’t include my recently obtained tip about pureeing whole oranges, which really packs the flavour into this version.

Oh, and all ingredients except for the baking powder can be purchased in our store, The Gulls Grocery. Hope to see you pop by soon!

Seville Orange Polenta Cake

Makes two cake tins worth (one for you, one to share 😉)

You will need:

For the cake:

150g butter/Naturli block

100ml olive oil

250g caster sugar

5 medium eggs

150g polenta

200g plain flour

2 seville oranges

2 tsp baking powder

For the glaze:

100g caster sugar

100ml orange juice (reserved from oranges)

Equipment:

2 x cake tins

Blender

Microwave (optional, but handy)

Electric beater (optional, but handy)

1. Preheat oven to 180C / 160C Fan / Gas 3 and line 2 x cake tins with baking paper. I used one loaf tin, and one 20cm round tin.

2. Wash and halve the seville oranges and pop them in a bowl sprinkled with water. Put them in the microwave for 10 minutes to cook. Alternatively, you can boil them for 90 minutes.

3. Mix butter and sugar together til light and fluffy. I used an electric beater, but elbow grease and a big spoon will also work. Add the oil and combine. Add the eggs and mix them in until you have an even mixture.

4. Add the flour and polenta to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly to form a batter.

5. When the oranges are cooked, strain off 100ml of liquid and pop into a saucepan. We’ll be using this to make the glaze later. Next, laboriously remove all of the pips you can see. Yes, it’s a bit of a mission! You might need to wait for the oranges to cool slightly first, too. Finally, pop the whole oranges into a blender, or use a stick blender, to puree. Add a little extra orange juice or water if it’s too stiff to blend. 

6. Mix the orange puree into the batter and finally, add the baking powder and combine.

7. Divide across baking tins and cook for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

8. To make the glaze, heat the caster sugar with the reserved orange juice in the saucepan. Once the sugar has dissolved, allow it to cool, and pour over the cake once it too has cooled.

Gluten Free Polenta Cake

You will need:

For the cake:

150g butter/Naturli block

2 medium eggs

125g caster sugar

200g polenta

2 tsp baking powder

2 seville oranges

For the glaze:

100ml caster sugar

Reserved 100ml juice from the oranges

1. Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C Fan / Gas 3, and line a cake tin with baking paper. I’ve made this in a loaf tin, and in a circular tin.

2. Using an electric beater, or a spoon and some elbow grease, cream together butter and sugar with the zest of the two oranges.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the polenta and baking powder

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, to the batter along with 2 tbsp polenta for each egg. Combine the mixture thoroughly before adding the second egg. 

5. Add the rest of the polenta.

6. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

7. To make the glaze, squeeze 100ml juice from the oranges and heat with 100g caster sugar until the sugar dissolves. Allow it to cool, and pour over the cake once it too has cooled.