Polenta & Coconut Lemon Cake

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 1/2
  
  cups cooked polenta (coarse grained)
  
• 1
  
  cup desiccated coconut
  
• 1
  
  cup almond meal (ground almonds)
  
• 1/2
  
  cup corn flour
  
• 1
  
  tablespoon baking powder
  
• 1
  
  teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1
  
  teaspoon whole sea salt
  
• 1
  
  cup rice milk
  
• 2
  
  tablespoons chia seeds + 2 TBsp flax seeds + 6 TBsp rice milk
  
• 1/3
  
  cup olive oil
  
• 1/4
  
  cup maple syrup
  
• 1
  
  tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  
• 1
  
  lemon, zest + juice (save 2 TBsp of juice for glaze*)
  

Glaze

• 2
  
  tablespoons good quality, local honey (or maple syrup / brown rice syrup for vegan version)
  
• 1
  
  tablespoon ghee (or coconut oil for vegan version)
  
• 2
  
  tablespoons lemon juice*
  
• 1
  
  teaspoon fennel seeds
  
• 1
  
  teaspoon aniseed
  
• 1
  
  pinch Himalayan sea salt, grounded
  

Directions

1. Use leftover polenta or cook from scratch: 1 cup polenta to 3 cups water, for 30-40 minutes, stirring often.
2. In a small bowl, mix chia seeds, flax seeds and rice milk and let sit for 10-15min.
3. Sift dry flours into a bowl, pouring back into the bowl any bits that may remain in the sifter, add the rest of the dry ingredients and cooked polenta and set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 180°C. Rub a round cake pan with ghee or coconut oil and generously sprinkle with desiccated coconut.
5. Prepare the wet mix: Mix the chia-flaxseed mixture with rice milk, olive oil and maple syrup in a blender on high speed until smooth well combined; add apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and zest and pulse a few times on low speed to incorporate (not too much, or there won’t be any bits of lemon zest left!).
6. Pour the wet mix into the dry ingredients and, working quickly, fold the batter with a spatula until just combined. Immediately transfer the batter into the cake pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden, the edges pull slightly apart from the pan and when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
7. While the cake is baking, make the glaze: in a small saucepan on very low heat, melt ghee and honey (or coconut oil and maple syrup). Remove from heat, add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until smooth.
8. When the cake is ready, let cool slightly before removing from cake pan and spooning the glaze over the top of the crust. Enjoy with a cup of mint tea!