I have to admit that I have a slight addiction to syrup cakes at the moment. The texture is totally different to the texture of normal flour based cakes..
The sweetness of this cake is slightly off set by the tang of the lime and the polenta gives a slight crunch to the outer edges.
All in all a very yummy syrup cake.
WHAT YOU NEED:
-250g softened butter
- 250g of golden or white caster sugar
- 5 large eggs
-140g polenta
-200g plain flour
-2 generous tsp of baking powder
-50g dessicated coconut
-4 limes ( juice and the zest) You may need a little extra lime juice.
For the syrup you will need equal amounts of lime juice, water and sugar.
WHAT YOU DO
1. Cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy meanwhile preheat the oven to 160 celcius conventional oven and aprox 140 fan forced.
2. Slowly add the eggs and lime zest and juice.
3. In a seperate bowl sift the flour, polenta, baking sugar and coconut.
4. Combine the lot add fold together till combined. You may need to add a little extra lime juice here to make sure the mixture is not dry. (This mixture is different from the sloppy textures of flour based cakes)
5. In a prepared pan or mini pans spoon the mixture in. Due to the texture you will need to spread this mixture out evenly as it will not do this itself like most cake batters.
6. Bake in oven till a skewer comes out clean from the centre. This took about 30 mins in my oven but my oven is not so reliable on the temperature to be sure to watch your cake and test for readiness with a skewer is my best advice. In actually fact rarely do I actually look at the time for my cakes always realying on the good old skewer in centre of the cake method.
7. Allow to cool for ten mins before removing from pan.
8. To make the sugar syrup add the equal parts of sugar, lime juice and water to a pan and heat for aprox ten mins till all sugar has combined and thickened. Prick the cake and pour the warm syrup over the cake.
Yum
