Strawberry Polenta Cake with Strawberry & Black Pepper Sauce
A rustic yet wonderfully complex dessert, the cake itself uses a base of crumbly polenta and almond along with strawberries and a bit of lemon. All of this is topped off with a strawberry and black pepper sauce (a surprisingly delightful combination!).
Servings 12 people
Calories 378kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup fine polenta or finely ground cornmeal (see note)
- 7 oz blanched almonds (~1.25 cups) (see note for pre-ground substitution)
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 5 oz strawberries thinly sliced
Strawberry & Black Pepper Sauce
- 1 lb strawberries hulled and halved
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp black peppercorns coarsely ground (see note)
Instructions
Strawberry Polenta Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Line an 9 inch cake pan (or spring-form pan) with parchment paper, and grease the sides with a bit of butter.
- Grind the almonds with a food processor (or spice grinder, or blender) until they form an even, somewhat coarse crumb. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
- Combine the ground almonds, corn meal, baking powder, and salt. Mix about 1/3 of the mixture into the butter and sugar, followed by one egg. Repeat with the remaining dry ingredients and eggs, mixing thoroughly as you go.
- Fold the lemon zest and sliced strawberries into the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 50 minutes.
- Check the doneness of the cake - a cake tester or toothpick should emerge fairly clean, and the sides should have browned and pulled away from the cake pan somewhat. If the cake isn't quite set enough, return it to the oven for 5 minutes or so. Note that this cake might a bit soft and jiggly even when fully cooked, as the lack of wheat flour gives it less structure than a conventional cake.
- Set the finished cake on a rack to cool, but leave it in the tin. Prepare the strawberry and black pepper sauce while the cake cools.
Strawberry and Black Pepper Sauce
- Place all of the ingredients in a small saucepan on the stovetop over medium heat. Stir to keep things from scorching.
- Cook the mixture until the strawberries are very soft (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and pour into a strainer to separate the solids from the syrupy strawberry/lemon juice. You'll use the juice to brush the cake (see 'To Serve' below).
To Serve
- Prick the surface of the cake all over with a cake tester or small skewer.
- Brush about 1/2 cup of the the warm strawberry syrup over the top of the cake. Allow the cake to cool again. Mix any remaining syrup back in with the strawberries.
- Gently remove the cooled cake from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature, topped with strawberry and black pepper sauce. Dust with a little icing sugar, if you like.
Notes
Polenta vs. Cornmeal - the word polenta is more accurately used to refer to a dish made from cooked cornmeal, but you'll often encounter Italian-style cornmeal sold as polenta. You can use corn meal and uncooked polenta interchangeably, but do take note of the coarseness of the grind. Italian cornmeal comes in a variety of grinds, from coarse to fine. I use a medium/fine grind here, which is fairly interchangeable with the most commonly found cornmeal types available in North America. You can use a more coarsely ground cornmeal for a more crumbly texture in the cake, but I would recommend measuring by weight rather than volume if you do, as the coarser cornmeal has a larger volume. Aim for about 3.5 oz (100 g).
Whole vs. Ground Almonds - You get the best flavour and freshness from your almonds by grinding them yourself, and you get better control over the texture of the pieces. If you can't grind your own almonds, you can substitute an equal quantity of pre-ground almonds (almond meal) - 7 oz (200 g) of almond meal will work out to about 2 cups. I like using blanched almonds here, but you can use unblanched (i.e. skin-on) almonds too. See the Recipe Notes section of the post for a more detailed overview of these ingredients.
Pepper - I like to get little pops of black pepper flavour (and a bit of texture) from the pepper in the sauce, so I use fresh pepper with a fairly coarse grind. If you want a more subtle and evenly distributed flavour, grind the pepper a little more finely.
Nutrition
Calories: 378kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 93mg | Sodium: 184mg | Potassium: 304mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 24g | Vitamin A: 555IU | Vitamin C: 31.4mg | Calcium: 88mg | Iron: 1.3mg