Orange and Apricot Polenta Cake

Welcome to Separate Toasters, my space to share with you my gluten free cooking and baking experiences.  What better way to start this blog than with my favourite gluten free cake recipe!

Last week this cake made my work lunches just a little bit special.  As much as I love to cook I am incredibly lazy and unimaginative when it comes to the food I take with me to work.  I don’t have time she wails to make interesting packed lunches.  The best I can hope for is that I’ve managed to make something at the weekend that will sustain me through the week and help those mid morning cravings.  

Juicy oranges paired with dried apricots make this cake lovely and moist.  I also love to throw in some dried cranberries to add a bit of sweetness and extra colour to the mix.  The cake will keep pretty well in a cake tin for about four days.  It is full of so many good and wholesome things that I can’t feel too bad about reaching for a big slice.

My sister gave me this recipe and she’s not sure where it came from.  We’ve both made our own adaptions to the original. 

Ingredients:

Zest of 2 oranges

Then peel and cut those oranges in to chunks

5oz dried apricots chopped (or 7oz if you don’t want to include cranberries)

2oz dried cranberries

4 1/2 oz butter

3 eggs

2 tbsp honey (I use Manuka Honey for the added health benefits)

1 1/2 oz tapioca flour

2oz brown rice flour

3 oz polenta

2 1/2 oz ground almonds

2 tsp gluten free baking powder

Directions:

Grease and line a 9inch round cake tin with baking paper.  Preheat Oven to Gas Mark 5 or 190°C for electric (you will notice mine is in a loaf tin.  The recipe is intended for a round cake tin but on this occasion I decided to try making a loaf and I had a bit left over to make some muffins too.)

In a food processor or blender mix together the orange zest, oranges, apricots, cranberries, butter, eggs and honey.  You can do this by adding one ingredient at a time depending on how good your machine is.  The end result should be a puree like consistency.

In a separate bowl mix the flours, polenta, almonds and baking powder together.  Then beat in the puree.

Once well combined pour in to your cake tin and bake for aprox 40-45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.  Leave to cool in the cake tin for about ten minutes then turn the cake out on to a wire rack.

This is delicious served with raspberry jam and natural yogurt.