Lemon and blueberry cornmeal cake

Even though I’ve been very focused on my inventory project (two years now, wow) I still love to go around the supermarket aisles to see if there’s anything new I haven’t tried yet – my husband says that if we went grocery shopping at the same time with the same list on our hands he’d be finished in half the time (and he’s right). :D

Weeks ago I discovered a new brand of corn products, a Brazilian one, and those products are made of non-transgenic corn. I found that such a wonderful thing that I couldn’t resist and brought home a bag of corn flour, which was used to make Clarice’s beautiful cake. Since the cake turned out so good, I was inspired to bake again with that corn flour, this time using a recipe that originally called for polenta. The cake turned out delicious and really tender, with the blueberries popping like small bubbles of jam at every bite – I found the cake so good on its own I skipped the icing entirely.

Lemon and blueberry cornmeal cake
slightly adapted from here

225g unsalted butter, very soft
225g granulated sugar
4 large eggs
finely grated zest of 2 large lemons
4 tablespoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
100g corn flour (not corn starch)
150g all purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
200g blueberries, fresh or frozen (unthawed)
icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 20x30cm (8x12in) baking pan and line it with baking paper, buttering the paper as well*.
Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in the lemon zest and vanilla. Fold in the corn flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, salt and lemon juice to make a smooth batter. Carefully fold in half the blueberries. Spoon mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface. Scatter over remaining blueberries.
Bake for about 40minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and cut into squares to serve.

* I used a pan with a removable bottom, so I just buttered and floured it – I did not use baking paper to line it

Serves 20