Nigella Lawson, My Girl Crush

Nigella Lawson makes a Lemon Polenta Cake. I made it once because I found Almond Meal in my freezer. That's a good enough reason to make anything. It's texture is lovely and smells wonderful when baking. But I never make the same thing twice and I'm going through an Orange Almond phase.
I think you can substitute and Citrus for Any Citrus, maybe not so much Limes and grapefruits but that's my personal taste. Grapefruits seem to be having their 10 minutes of fame which is odd because so many people can't have Grapefruit due to prescription Medicine..but..anyway.
Here's is Nigella's Version-
(this is one of those times I endorse "room Temperature Ingredients"

for the cake

• 1 ¾ sticks soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)
• 1 cup superfine sugar (I used granulated, don't tell)
• 2 cups almond meal
• ¾ cup fine polenta (or cornmeal)
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (gluten free if required)
• 3 large eggs
• zest of 2 lemons (save juice for syrup) or Oranges or what ever.

for the syrup

• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• A shot of something Alcoholic if you want

(i  know, it's Gluten Free, Who knew?)

hERE IS HER METHOD WITH MY SNARKY comments-

Method

1. Line the base of a 23cm / 9inch springform cake tin with baking parchment and grease its sides lightly with butter.
2. To quote my Son .."Meh". If all you have is a 9 inch cake pan it's OK, as long as it's a tall one. But really do the Parchment part. Don't just say you did, really do it.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/ 350°F.
4. HA! Gas Mark! So British, lets put the pot on for tea.
5. Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.
6. This where the room temp thing will help you.
7. Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
8. OK, this is where I go all "Off Book". I recently bought some really good Vanilla, thank you Penzey's Spices for ruining me for Cheap Vanillas. So I would add a teaspoon of Vanilla, but for this version that I'm guiding you through, I did 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla and a 1/2 teaspoon of Almond Extract. Measure carefully, to much Almond extract gets to perfume-ee.
9. Finally, beat in the lemon zest (NOW! Do it, use Orange Zest, don't you feel empowered?) and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.
10. It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin.
11. Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar in a smallish saucepan. (Use Orange Juice instead)
12. Once the confectioners' sugar’s dissolved into the juice, you’re done. Use granulated if you want, it might take a bit more to dissolve it.
13. Prick (tee hee) the top of the cake all over with a cake tester , pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its tin.
14. Feeling Crazy? Claim this for your own. If you are making lemon Version, add a shot of Lemoncello to syrup. For the Orang? Add Grand Marnier to it or Triple Sec if you are having a tight week. Lime would be sool and kind of a good dessert for Mexican Food..Do what ever you want. If the original version works, make intelligent substitutions and your version will work too. If A works, then B works too.

Stay Tuned, be good, I'll post a picture tomorrow.