Two things I love: Italians and polenta. Mix them together and you get cake!

This is a drop dead gorgeous recipe which has a course texture (like an unshaven Italian movie star) and the secret ingredient of olive oil and dessert wine. I was inspired by a Julia Busuttil recipe I saw on Tasty Tuesday and decided to try out this traditional Italian recipe on the crew of a short film I catered for recently. The cupcakes disappeared faster than the director could say “cut”. And I like to think that the entire film was a success because of them!

Pear and Polenta cake:
(preheat oven to 180C)

• 180g almonds
• 1 pear
• 80g plain flour
• 180g coarse polenta
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 120g caster sugar
• 130ml olive oil
• 1 orange: juice, and zest

Vin Santo syrup:

• 40g caster sugar
• 80ml Vin Santo wine
• pinch salt

Method:

• Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.
• In a food processor, grind up the almonds and pear.
• In a large bowl, mix together the ground almonds and pear, flour, polenta, and baking powder. Stir to combine and set aside.
• In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until pale and creamy.
• Continue beating and slowly add the oil, orange juice and zest until all are combined.
• Add in the dry ingredients and mix well.
• Bake until golden (approximately 25 min).
• Cook up the syrup by placing all the ingredients on a pot on the stove, bring to the boil, stir continually until the sugar has been dissolved, allow to simmer for a few minutes until it has thickened slightly.
• Drizzle over the cake while still warm so that it seeps in.
• Dust with a dash of icing sugar or orange zest.
• Serve with mascarpone and watch the first installment of The Godfather.