Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Cooked cornmeal cake

Cooked cornmeal cake

I’d promised my dad to bake him a cornmeal cake ages ago – and he’d ask me about the cake every chance he got.

I have a good friend who knows all about Brazilian cornmeal cakes – she’s baked several different recipes, all of them with beautiful results. I used one of her recipes.
What a delicious cake! Since the cornmeal is cooked with the sugar, milk and oil, the result is a very moist cake.

In my opinion, the only difficult thing in this recipe is being able to resist and not eat the whole bowl of cooked, sweetened cornmeal. :)

My father loved it and said that he can’t wait for me to bake and send him more cakes like this.

Cooked cornmeal cake

320g fine cornmeal – polenta works wonderfully as well
250g sugar
400ml milk
150ml vegetable oil – I used canola
pinch of salt
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 ½-2 tablespoons cornmeal – extra, to prepare the pan

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/355ºF.
Grease a 24cm ring pan and sprinkle with cornmeal, shaking well to coat the whole pan. Shake it to remove any excess. You can bake this recipe in muffin pans, if you wish.
Place the cornmeal, sugar, milk, oil and salt in a large saucepan and mix well until the ingredients are dissolved. Cook this mixture over medium/high heat, stirring constantly so there aren’t any lumps, until thick and creamy – it will resemble soft polenta.
If lumps are formed, stir quickly clockwise and then the opposite way – I used a whisk and it worked really well. Pour the mixture in a bowl and set aside to cool.
When it’s cool, add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each addition. Add the baking powder and mix well.
Pour the mixture into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Let it cool in the pan before unmolding it.

Serves 10

Cooked cornmeal cake

26 comments:

  1. This sounds like a delicious, substantial cake--and not too sweet, I'm guessing. And it looks gorgeous unadorned; I'm a big fan of unfrosted cakes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've never made a cake with cornmeal that didn't also have flour. I will definitely have to try this, as I have in my refrigerator a bag of locally ground cornmeal that was given to me by one of my blog readers! Now I know exactly how I'll use it. Thank you for the recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've tried a few Italian recipes of cornmeal cakes, actually they don't seem much different from yours! I just love this rustic cake, geniue to taste!

    ReplyDelete
  4. somehow when I look at this, my mind wanders of to those Brazlian cheese cornmeal rolls haha, anyway, haven't use cornmeal in cakes before, this looks yummy, its always for breading and pancakes, will have to kick my butt once more to do some baking again :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yum, looks delicious and satisfying! I have bought some cornmeal recently with mind to making a cornmeal cake so now I have a recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Never made a cake with cornmeal, I usually make the pudding. Yours sounds like a great idea;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. The cake looks fantastic as I sit here and eat my corn bread muffin!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Now I know what I'll do with that cornmeal in my pantry! This looks like it might be an upscale version of cornbread, which I adore, and which never takes frosting.
    Obrigada, Patricia!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love this post Patricia! After tackling my first olive oil cake, I told my dad I needed to make one with cornmeal next. Here you've given me the recipe! Thanks, what perfect timing.

    And you are a sweet daughter, or as my dad would say, "She's a girl good, that Patricia." :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. You are such a sweet daughter :). I love almost anything with cornmeal and i think this will be no exception! This looks like such a homey eat-everyday cake !

    ReplyDelete
  11. Terry, you can decrease the amount of sugar if you want to. My father loves sweet things!
    This is a great cake to have with black coffee.

    Lydia, I hope you like this cake, dear!

    Gattina, in the region where I live there's a big concentration of Italian descendants - we have much of their influence in our cooking. Maybe that's why the cakes are similar!

    Melting Wok, you have lots of baking skills, let them show! ;)
    I'll make the cheese rolls soon and post them here.

    Freya, let me know if you like the cake!

    Valentina, is this pudding of yours like soft polenta? I love cornmeal and I'm interested in new recipes. ;)

    Bradley, thank you! And tks for stopping by, too!

    Toni, you are so sweet! Beijos, querida!

    Susan, I've told you once we are connected. :D
    How nice of you to "say" that, I really appreciate it!

    Veron, I have a sweet father, too. I loved to cook for him when I was single. Now that I'm married and no longer living with him, he's even lost a few pounds. lol

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ooo, that looks really good, especially with the cup of coffee sitting next to it. I swear I can almost smell the heady aromas!

    Cornmeal is one of my favorite things to cook with though I don't do it often enough. :)


    Ari (Baking and Books)

    ReplyDelete
  13. That looks delicious and so fluffy!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Patricia! That cake looks so moist and delicious! I would love this for breakfast. I can't stop staring at the pictures. =)

    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  15. This looks really nice! I gave some fine polenta, will try this soon. :P

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm sure I would like this cake...although I have never baked with cornmeal. It looks really delicious! :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh my gosh... I would love some of that with a little bit of honey butter on it. It looks so good Patricia!

    ReplyDelete
  18. patricia, i'm not a cake fan, and the only exceptions are carrot and cornmeal, which i love! i've alerady got one recipe some days ago, and here is the other! wheeeee! :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Ari, thank you! I like cornmeal a lot, too, and like you don't use it as much as I would like to.

    Ellie, tks, sweetie!

    Lis, you're so sweet, tks!!
    xoxo

    Anh, I hope you enjoy this recipe!

    Joey, tks! Let me know if you start baking with cornmeal. :)

    Kristen, honey butter?? It sounds wonderful!!

    Juliana, not a cake fan? What about bread? I'm curious, let me know what kind of recipes you'd like to see around here.

    ReplyDelete
  20. It does look good, and like TerryB, I like it unfrosted.

    Your photos are inspiring, too, Patricia.

    I'm trying to stay away from sweets, but your blogs makes me fantasize.

    ReplyDelete
  21. looks creamy! and with that coffee!? perfection!

    ReplyDelete
  22. i don't like cakes with lots of layers since i was a child (but i'd add "goiabada" to the cake!). i don't like "brigadeiro" as well.
    in fact, sweats aren’t my cup of tea. i remember when i was a child and preferred eating "coxinha" to all that sweats served at children's birthday parties…
    oh, i love breads. and pastries.
    don’t worry, technicolorkitcheninenglish is perfect anyway! :)

    ReplyDelete
  23. I've never made a cornmeal cake, but yours looks really good. I love how smooth the top came out, it's really pretty!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I just made this and it turned out great! I was worried because I don't think my corn meal is "fine" corn meal, but it still worked. I only baked it for 35 minutes. It is essentially like cornbread, but I'm thinking that's because I didn't use fine corn meal.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi...I just wanted to say that I loveeee this cake. I just tried it for the first time, took it out the oven about 20 minutes ago. It's moist and not too sweet. I added some vanilla to it and I liked that it was quite easy to make. Would make it again and again.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hey, Des
    That is great news! I am so glad to know you liked the recipe, and vanilla sounds like a perfect addition to this recipe - thank you for letting me know how the cake turned out for you!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comment!