Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

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Guest Recipe: Orange and Pomegranate Cake by Diana Henry

This is Diana Henry’s recipe for her Orange and Pomegranate Cake, shared with permission, from her latest book A Change of Appetite. The cake itself is wonderfully simple to make and extremely moist.

Orange Pomegranate Cake
Photo Credit: Laura Edwards – A Change of Appetitie

Incredibly easy. Not sugar-free I know but, as cakes go, not bad. And it is for dessert. Serve thin slices with Greek yogurt. It’s very, very moist (almost pudding-like) so be careful when you’re moving it off the base of the cake tin and on to a plate – Diana Henry

Orange Pomegranate Cake

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Orange and Pomegranate Cake

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 8

Ingredients

  • For the cake
  • 50g (13⁄4oz) wholemeal breadcrumbs
  • 100g (31⁄2oz) ground almonds
  • 175g (6oz) soft light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • finely grated zest of 1½ oranges
  • 215ml (71⁄2fl oz) olive oil, plus more for the tin
  • 4 eggs, lightly beaten
  • seeds from 1⁄2 pomegranate
  • For the syrup
  • juice of 1 orange
  • 100ml (31⁄2fl oz) pomegranate juice (pure juice, not ‘pomegranate juice drink’)
  • 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
  • 2 tbsp runny honey

Instructions

  1. In a bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, almonds, sugar and baking powder. Add the orange zest, olive oil and eggs and stir well until everything is amalgamated.
  2. Pour the batter into an oiled 20cm (8in) springform cake tin. Put it into a cold oven and set the heat to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5. Bake for 45–50 minutes, or until the cake is browned and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  3. Meanwhile, make the syrup by gently heating all the ingredients together. Stir a little until the honey has dissolved, then increase the heat and simmer for five minutes. You should end up with about 100ml (31⁄2fl oz) of syrup.
  4. When the cake is cooked, pierce holes all over the surface and slowly pour the syrup all over it, allowing it to sink in. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin. It will sink a little in the middle but don’t worry, this makes a lovely dip for the pomegranate seeds to lie in. Scatter the pomegranate seeds on top just before serving.

 

You can read more about my adventures cooking from the book on Monday and there are some equally stunning recipes by Diana Henry to be found on her column for Stella Magazine in The telegraph or on her own website.

With thanks to Mitchel Beazley/Octopus Publishing Group for my review copy and permission to share this recipe. A Change of Appetite was published on 3rd March 2014, RRP £25. 

Simple and in Season: January Round-Up and Winner

Welcome to the Simple and in Season January Round-Up on Fabulicious Food! January seemed like a long month. I have no idea why, but it did. I’ve been longing for the weather to warm up, so we can walk/scoot to school instead of having to de-ice the car and avoid ice patches, but now snow is forecast! I’m sure this is why this month has been about comfort food and food that brightens up our day or keeps us warm!

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Chocolate Snowflakes and Fairy Cakes

I love following food blogs and one of the very best things about the explosion of food blogging is the wealth of inspiration from all over the world, with individual perspectives, styles and ideas. Whilst I don’t usually use or buy silcone baking moulds, when I saw these peppermint snowflake chocolates on one of my favourite American blogs, Baked by Rachel, I had to try making them.  This is definitely a recipe and a task to bookmark for next year, as these chocolates would make beautiful gifts and there are endless variations and possibilities.

I made these at my friend Jessica’s house and we made the peppermint bark to Rachel’s recipe (she has step-by-step photos on an older post here), but then experimented by adding orange oil to plain chocolate and sprinkling a few hazelnuts over the top. By just making one layer, they obviously turn out thinner too. Dark chocolate and pistachio would work well and perhaps white chocolate with rose petals or lavender flecks too. They came out of the moulds really easily and they tasted delicious!

I managed to find my ‘snowflake silicone mold tray’ on Amazon.co.uk but I am sure you could find them in many independent cookery shops, particularly at this time of the year.

I also made little chocolate cupcakes in the moulds too, which made the perfect after-school snack for the kids. If you have some silicone moulds handy, you might even have time to try making these yourselves before Christmas. Let me know if you do!

Today I’m looking forward to being a guest again on Nick Coffer’s Weekend Kitchen where I will be talking about a traditional Polish Christmas, with wild mushroom soup, pierogi (filled dumplings) and a baked Polish cheesecake. Tune in or listen on iplayer if you can!

Orange and Amaretto Polenta Cake

Whenever I go to the Italian café in my town, I always ask for a piece of their Orange Polenta Cake, which is loaf-shaped and cut into a slice, rather than round. It is also the most deliciously light, moist and more-ish cake I have eaten. I have never managed to replicate it at home, and their recipe is a closely-guarded secret. So, when I came across a Lemon Polenta Cake in Nigella’s book, Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home, I was more than a little excited.


I made Nigella’s recipe and followed it to the letter. It was really good. Lemony and most defintely light, perfect for a spring teatime treat.  Using polenta and ground almonds in place of flour gives the cake a wonderful crumbly texture and pouring a warm syrup over the top means that the crumbs absorb all the liquid, adding sweetness to the sharpness of the lemons. 
Nigella describes it as an “Anglo-Italian amalgam”, on the basis that the round shape of the cake reminds her of cakes in Italian patisserie windows (and, of course, using polenta in a cake is most definitely Italian) but she ‘borrows’ the syrup from the English teatime classic Lemon Drizzle Cake as she finds some Italian cakes can be a little dry.
In order to try and replicate the beloved Orange Polenta Cake I love, I took my inspiration from Nigella’s recipe, using orange zest and juice in place of lemons, adding a teaspoon on Valencian orange essence for an extra kick and by adding a couple of tablespoons of Amaretto, both to the cake mixture and to the orange syrup. 
If you want to be really naughty, serve this, as I did, with mascarpone (Italian cream cheese) flavoured with orange zest and Amaretto. I found that there was quite a lot of syrup and that a little bit could be taken out to whisk into some mascarpone.


Note – the Amaretto content makes this cake unsuitable for children, but that does mean more for the adults! If you were sticking to Nigella’s Lemon recipe, you could always add a splash or two of Italian Limoncello…

It worked. It was delicious. It will be made again!

Orange & Amaretto Polenta Cake
Adapted from ‘Lemon Polenta Cake’ by Nigella Lawson (Kitchen)


Ingredients
For the cake:
200g unsalted butter, plus a small amount to grease the tin
200g caster sugar
200g ground almonds
100g fine ground polenta
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
1 teaspoon Valencian orange extract
1 tablespoon/15 ml Amaretto liqueur
For the syrup:
Juice of one orange
2 tablespoons/15 ml Amaretto liqueur
125g icing sugar
For the Mascarpone Cream:
Save some of the syrup (around 30 mls) and whisk into 150g marsarpone
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Line the bottom of a 23cm springform tin with baking paper and spread a little butter around the edges too for good measure.
3. Put the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat well until light, pale and fluffy. I used a stand mixer, but an electric whisk or wooden spoon would be fine.
4. Mix the ground almonds, polenta and baking powder together and in a separate bowl lightly mix your eggs. Still beating, add these to the butter and sugar, alternating as you go along.
5. Add in the orange zest, orange essence and Amaretto, if using, and mix well.
6. Tip the mixture into your tin and bake in the oven for around 40 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean when it’s ready.
7. While the cake is cooking, make the syrup by boiling the orange juice, Amaretto and icing sugar in a pan just for a minute or so until the icing sugar melts.
8. Once the cake is cooked, prick the top of the cake all over with a toothpick and while it is still in its tin, pour the syrup over the top (saving a bit for the mascarpone cream if you are making it).
9. Once the cake has cooled down, take it out of its tin. If it isn’t eaten in one sitting it will keep well in an airtight container for a few days.

I’m sending my post over to Sarah at Maison Cupcake, for my second bite of the cherry in this month’s Italian-themed ‘Forever Nigella’ competition – Ciao Italia!