Orange Polenta Cake is a zingy and fresh citrus cake! Much like our Lemon Polenta Cake from our baking recipes polenta is the star of the show!
Whip out some sweet treats like our Anzac Biscuits, Triple Caramel Chocolate Brownies, Lion Cake and Cookie Monster Cupcakes. For a week night possible cake, try our No Bake Chocolate Cake. For festive desserts your go to recipes are our Chocolate Ripple Wreath, Christmas Wreath Pavlova and 8 Egg Pavlova.
The freshly squeezed orange juice in with the orange zest and polenta is next level delicious!
Satisfy your sweet tooth with these delicious recipes!
This is a healthy polenta cake recipe that is quick and easy to prepare. Similar with different techniques to our Lemon Polenta Cake, you will have a hard time picking a favourite from the two!
What is Polenta Cake made from?
Polenta cake is made from a combination of ingredients including the coarse bright yellow polenta grain.
Made from yellow corn, you have probably come across polenta being used in savoury dishes. It is often found in the cooking aisle with the other flours and cake products.
To make this Orange Polenta Cake, we use a combination of wet and dry ingredients. The freshly squeezed orange juice goes into our cake along with some lively orange zest for a moist and soft cake texture.
This is a different technique to our Lemon Polenta Cake for the reliable sweetness of the orange fruit allows us to incorporate this juice. With lemons, their juice is more acidic and tart, so we use their zest but not their juice in the actual cake batter.
Is Polenta Cake Gluten Free?
This cake is a gluten free cake. The polenta we use is 'gluten free' as are the other ingredients.
If in doubt at all, check the label of the products as you purchase them and ensure each is free from gluten.
Can you use ready made Polenta in cakes?
Ready made polenta is not suitable for using in polenta cakes.
This is because it is cooked and sold in a solid form.
The polenta that we add as a dry ingredient to our recipe is coarse, grainy and perfect for a texture that brings the citrus flavours to life.
Can you freeze Orange Polenta Cake?
This recipe is perfect to freeze and that is easily done.
The best method to achieve this is to bake the cake then remove it from the oven whilst it cools.
Once your polenta cake is fully cooled, you can wrap it firmly in cling wrap or cut the cake into individual pieces and freeze separately.
To serve the cake, you can then remove it from the freezer and allow it to defrost in the fridge (or on the bench for a few hours).
You have the option to serve the cake cold or for an even more delicious treat, heat the cake in the microwave and serve with ice cream. The combination of hot polenta cake with ice cream melting over it is simply heavenly!
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Baking recipes Chocolate recipes Dessert recipes
Orange Polenta cake ingredients
The photo below shows you all of the ingredients we need for Orange Polenta Cake. They are set out and labelled so you can grab them quickly and know exactly what you need!
As you can see we need are:
- oranges
- polenta
- caster sugar
- eggs
- almond flour (note often called almond meal)
- butter
- baking powder
- icing sugar
Orange Polenta Cake method
Here are the step by step photos and instructions to make this recipe. We can break down our method into 18 easy steps.
- crack eggs into a jug and whisk to combine (shown in photos 1-2)
- zest your oranges and juice oranges, then set aside (shown in photo 3-4)
Orange Polenta Cake steps 5 to 8
- use electric beaters to beat butter and sugar (shown in photos 5-6)
- add orange zest to batter (shown in photo 7)
- add almond flour (shown in photo 8)
- pour orange juice into batter (shown in photo 9)
- add your eggs to the cake batter (shown in photo 10)
- followed by your polenta (shown in photo 11)
- then add your baking powder (shown in photo 12)
Healthy Polenta Cake Method
- use a spoon to stir and combine all of the ingredients(shown in photo 13)
- pour your cake batter into prepared lined tin (shown in photo 14)
- use the back of a spoon to smooth out (shown in photo 15))
- bake your polenta cake till it is golden (shown in photo 16)
- let your cake cool, remove from tin and flip onto serving plate (shown in photo 17)
- dust icing sugar and orange zest over the top of the cake (shown in photo 18)
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Orange Polenta Cake recipe quick info:
About the recipe:
- we use fresh oranges for both the zest and orange juice
- the zest tends to be 'wetter' than lemon zest and will clump more
- look in the health food aisle for the almond flour
- the polenta is the bright yellow coarse grain
- ready rolled polenta is not suitable for this cake
FAQs about Orange Polenta Cake
- spraying your cake tin will oil with help the baking paper stick!
- we use fresh oranges for the recipe
- you can use either almond flour or almond meal
- this is a freezer friendly recipe
- This is an EASY recipe
The combination of orange zest and fresh juice makes this cake most and zesty!
If you like baking with chocolate these recipes are for you!
Orange Polenta Cake Pro tips:
These additional tips are so that you can master this recipe from the 1st time you make it:
- preheat your oven as it will save time
- I prefer using navel oranges as their skin us a brighter orange
- the edges of the cake will slightly brown before the centre is cooked that is fine
- use a sieve to dust the icing sugar onto the top of the cake
- serve your cake hot with ice-cream for an ultra delicious feast!
Here are sweet recipes that will make your heart sing!
You will be delighted at the moist texture of the cake delivered from the addition of the orange juice.
Sweet Baking recipes to try:
- Lemon Polenta Cake
- Triple Caramel Chocolate Brownies
- Dulce de Leche Tartlets (p.s you can make the dulce in the slow cooker!)
- Cookie Monster Cupcakes (these are super fun to make!)
- Lion Cake recipe (perfect for a special occasion)
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Orange Polenta Cake
Equipment
- Cake Tin (22.5cm)
- Electric beaters
- Stiring spoon
- Mixing bowl
- Citrus Zester
- Juicer
Ingredients
Orange Polenta Cake
- 200 grams butter soft, Note 1
- 150 grams caster sugar
- 150 grams almond flour Note 2
- 140 grams polenta Note 3
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp baking powder Note 4
- zest of 3 oranges Note 5
- juice of one orange Note 6
Instructions
Orange Polena Cake
- Preheat oven to 200°c/400°F, gas 6
- Crack each egg into a jug, discard shells and whisk to combine
- Use a citrus zester to zest the oranges and set aside
- Use a juicer to juice 1 of the oranges and set aside
- Place your butter into a mixing bowl and use electric beaters to beat. Add the sugar and continue to beat.
- Add the orange zest followed by almond flour and stir to combine
- Pour the whisked eggs into the batter and use a spoon to stir till combined
- Add polenta and baking powder and stir again to combine.
- Transfer the cake mix into a lined cake tin and bake for 40- 50 mins. You will notice the edges of the cake turn a light golden brown. You can use a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake to test if it is done. Note 7
Video
Notes
- Note 1 As part of the process to make this cake the 1st thing I do is take the butter out of the fridge and leave it on the bench for a bit. This allows it to soften naturally which speeds up the process of beating it as well as allowing the process to be easier. I use a hand held mixer so if I m trying to beat hard fresh out of the fridge butter, the bowl can spin wildly out of control if the butter is not soft to start with.
- Note 2 This is slightly different to almond meal, however both work well. Almond flour is finer and doesn't have any brown flecks from the skin of the almonds which some almond meal ranges can have.
- Note 3 We use more polenta in this cake than our Lemon Polenta Cake to allow for the additional of the orange juice.
- Note 4 For our Lemon Polenta Cake we don't use baking powder as we don't really need it. However due to the addition of more wet ingredients in this Orange Polenta Cake, I do recommend using it.
- Note 5 For our oranges, we use the zest from all 3 and the juice from 1. The zest of approximately 2 of them go in the cake and 1 goes on the cake. 1 whole orange gets juiced and the juice as well as any pulp goes into the cake.
- Note 6 I use a hand held juicer. Simply cut 1 orange in half and juice each half. I tip the pulp and juice in (just no orange seeds!)
- Note 7 This is a popular technique I use to test my cakes. If the skewer comes out clean, the cake is ready. If there is any wet mix, it needs a little more more time. The top of the cake should also spring back when lightly pressed with the tip of a finger.
Nutrition
Sweet Baked Treats
There will be times when you need a savory bread recipe and times when you need a sweet citrus cake recipe!
For both scenarios, I have you covered with recipes you can find in our baking, dessert or sweet sections.
Our Orange Polenta cake is so incredibly easily to make, yet packs a delightful zestyness which defies how simple it is to make.
I can't wait for you to try it and I would love to hear your comments in the feedback below.
Zest on my friends, zest on!
Adrianne xx
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This sounds just incredible! I am loving the citrus and am always a huge fan of polenta. Can't wait to try it!
Thanks Danielle! I hope you love it if you give it a go, cheers!
Oooh I've never put polenta into a cake before, but this looks amazing! So soft! I love orange (or any citrus!) in cakes, I could just go for a slice of this now with my lunchtime coffee!
Sounds great thanks for your feedback Annie!
Love this recipe! It has such delicious flavor and looks so easy. I'll definitely be making it!
This cake looks so light and fluffy, can't wait to try it!
That is great to hear, thanks Amy!
I love orange and I love polenta, but never thought of pairing the two until I saw your recipe. It looks delicious!
This cake is like a ray of sunshine on a gloomy day! Such great flavor.
Cheers Demeter, aw that is a nice thing to say!
This is fabulous. I've made something similar, but also with olive oil, and it was incredible. So I can only imagine how wonderful this cake is! Almond flour is such a fabulous ingredient.
Thanks Mimi! An oil version sounds interesting! True, I love almond flour!
Looks delicious. Going to try recipe, but when do you add the orange juice?