Raspberry & lemon polenta cake

Raspberry & lemon polenta cake

Give your sponge an Italian twist with Jane Hornby's easy-to-make polenta cake

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 8

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 15 mins

Cook time

Cook 30 mins

Method

  1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5 and butter two 20cm sandwich tins. Line the bottom of the tins with baking paper. In a large bowl, beat the butter and 225g caster sugar together until creamy and light. Gradually add the egg, little by little, until all the egg is worked in and the mix is pale and fluffy. If the mix looks like it's starting to split, add 1 tsp of the flour, then carry on.
  2. Put the polenta in another bowl, then stir in the flour and baking powder. Beat the vanilla extract and zest into the eggy mix, then fold in the dry ingredients. Spoon half the batter into each tin and level the top. Scatter all but a handful of the raspberries over the mix and poke in gently. Sprinkle one of the sponges with the 1 tbsp sugar. Bake for 20 mins until risen and golden, but still with a little wobble under the crust.
  3. Open the oven, whip out the sugar-crusted sponge and quickly poke the remaining frozen raspberries into the top. Bake both sponges for 10 more mins or until springy in the middle. If this sounds too tricky, just leave the sponges to bake for 30 mins - the cake won't look as glam, but will still taste great (you can add the leftover berries to the filling instead). Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then cool completely on a rack. Be careful when turning out the raspberry-topped sponge and slide it off its base rather than turning it upside down.
  4. When the sponges are cold, beat the soft cheese with the icing sugar, lemon zest and a little of the juice to loosen if it needs it. Very lightly whip the cream so that it just holds its shape, then fold into the cheese. Fold in the defrosted raspberries. Use to sandwich the sponges together, sugar-crusted on top, and serve dusted with more icing sugar.
Try

Frozen berries

Frozen berries are a fantastic freezer standby. They're much cheaper than fresh at this time of year and, crucially, were picked at the height of their season (usually in the UK) so they're full of flavour. To defrost, lay in a single layer on a plate and leave at room temperature for about 20 mins. Treat them a little more carefully than fresh as the freezing process makes them quite delicate.

Polenta

Fine polenta, sometimes called cornmeal, is available in most supermarkets and is made from dried and ground up maize kernels. If you can't get hold of any, just substitute the polenta and plain flour for 225g self-raising flour and leave out the baking powder. The cake tastes wonderful served as dessert with a raspberry coulis, which is really quick to make - see my simple recipe, bottom right.

Raspberry coulis

Put ½ jar good-quality raspberry conserve into a small pan with 200g frozen raspberries, then gently heat until the fruit breaks up completely and the mix starts to boil. Press through a sieve and leave to cool. It will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge or freeze for up to 1 month.

Per serving

608 kcalories, protein 8g, carbohydrate 58g, fat 40 g, saturated fat 23g, fibre 2g, sugar 38g, salt 0.97 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, May 2007.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • Binder photo Liz

    18 November 2007

    Liz commented on this recipe

    Best cake I've ever eaten - very easy to make & looks so professional. Give it 5 stars.

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  • Binder photo Carole

    02 December 2007

    Carole rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Enjoyed by all at a family dinner.

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  • Binder photo S Bagwe

    19 December 2007

    S Bagwe rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I make an extra simple version without the frosting or polenta. Just use all flour (no polenta) and put all the raspberries in the cake. I make an optional glaze of icing sugar with lemon juice, but my kids and guests eat it plain also.

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  • Binder photo CFL recipes

    10 January 2008

    CFL recipes rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Really delicious. Quite a dense cake due to the polenta - which makes it go further. But it wont' last long!

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  • Binder photo Deborah

    12 February 2008

    Deborah rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Gorgeous cake with some greedy guests even having a second helping at my Italian themed dinner party! Looks VERY professional and the hint of lemon is lovely!

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  • Binder photo shoe2boot

    01 March 2008

    shoe2boot rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Superb Cake :o) Tasted absolutely delicious and everybody wanted the recipe. I used fresh raspberries as that's what I had in the fridge. Perfect for afternoon tea, summer picnic or fete stall, will certainly be making it again soon !!

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  • Binder photo Liz

    13 March 2008

    Liz commented on this recipe

    I have made this cake several times and each time it tastes better and better a firm family favourite. Very easy to make worth the extra effort.

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  • Binder photo Julia

    28 April 2008

    Julia rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I made this cake for a birthday party, so moist and it went down very well and I cut it into 16 pieces and it was plenty.

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  • Binder photo Hannah

    20 May 2008

    Hannah commented on this recipe

    We really enjoyed this cake as sunday lunch pudding. Then as monday lunch pudding as well! Being cows milk free in our house I used toffuti plain cream cheese (instead of the cream and cream cheese) as the filling which worked really well.

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  • Binder photo abla

    24 June 2008

    abla commented on this recipe

    I made this for a birthday at work, didn't use polenta - I was told it was even better than 'the ultimate chocolate cake' (also on this website) which had rave reviews!!! Deffo recommend (mine didn't look quite as good as the picture though as the sugar on top cracked when I pushed in the second lot of raspberrys but it still tasted great)

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  • Binder photo lainiewong

    21 July 2008

    lainiewong rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Very yummy and enjoyed by all. Very easy to make and the crunchy texture on the outside of the cake was deliciously different. Would definitely make it again.

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  • Binder photo sally

    07 September 2008

    sally rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Perfect cake light and delicious, exactly how cake should be!

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  • Binder photo HollyBerry!

    05 March 2009

    HollyBerry! commented on this recipe

    This recipe is FANTISTIC! I used it on my NVQL3 Catering course as a final assesment in pastry. I changed alot to be honest to make it my own. Instead of the raspberries on top. i sealed a cake tin around the cake, made a raspberry coulis with gelatine and poured it down onto the cake and chilled it until it set. i had a beautiful and unusual design on the top! i then piped 8 little cream swirls to mark out the portions, placed a rasperry on top of each one, then i caramelised eight lemon wedges, and slanted them over the top of the raspberry. i have some wonderful pictures of the cake id love to show you but i cant find a link to upload them onto. i also made the cake for my sisters 11th birthday. she loved it!

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  • Binder photo charlene woolley

    23 March 2009

    charlene woolley rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this with self raising flour rather than polenta, and it was very well received by my work colleagues. Looks amazing!

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  • Binder photo smpdit

    05 June 2009

    smpdit commented on this recipe

    very nice.. though I used fresh raspberries. lovely and tangy..

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  • Binder photo Kitty's Nims

    07 July 2009

    Kitty's Nims rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Made this for my work collegues for a leaving tea got a big thumbs up from everyone

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  • Binder photo Emma_G

    12 June 2010

    Emma_G rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    delicious and very easy to make. Lovely as a summer birthday cake

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  • Binder photo Sarah T

    07 October 2010

    Sarah T commented on this recipe

    Have made this many times as a dessert. It's a winner. I have tried using less polenta and more flour and this results in a slightly lighter texture.

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  • Binder photo Rleck

    30 October 2010

    Rleck commented on this recipe

    This is perfect also without the flour and with wheat free flour for those who are wheat intolerant!

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  • Binder photo Funny Spoon

    31 May 2011

    Funny Spoon rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    This was my first glutenfree cake I made for a friend of mine. Delicious! Didn't have two 20cm tins so used a bigger one (25) and made only one layer with the cream on top (took 1.5 times the ingredients for the filling/topping) Put several spoons of the batter on a baking sheet and made 'waffles'' which I then arranged atop of the cream along with extra berries - looked very nice and tasted even better. Next time, I'll try to add some almonds to the batter, read this at many other places, in combination with the polenta it seems to make the cake more fluffy, less compact. Re polenta, make sure to get a really fine one, otherwise the sensation might remind you of your childhood at the beach, eating sand :)

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 8

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 15 mins

Cook time

Cook 30 mins

Stunning, but so simple

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE

FOR THE FILLING

  • 100g soft cheese at room temperature (we used Philadelphia)
  • 1 tbsp icing sugar , or more to taste
  • finely grated zest of ½ lemon , plus a squeeze of juice
  • 142ml tub double cream
  • 100g frozen raspberries , defrosted
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Per serving

608 kcalories, protein 8g, carbohydrate 58g, fat 40 g, saturated fat 23g, fibre 2g, sugar 38g, salt 0.97 g

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