Almond & Olive Oil Polenta cake with Lemon and Raspberry

At home we often make granola and flapjacks with olive oil but this gorgeous polenta cake is probably our favourite. You can make it with any berry you like but this version with raspberries and drizzled with a lemon syrup is especially good - both fruits are tart against the moreish fudginess of the sponge. It's a great dessert but also the perfect pick me up for the afternoon.

Almond & Olive Oil Polenta cake with Lemon and Raspberry

Ingredients

• 250gr Polenta finely ground (If yours is sandy in texture just blitz it in a food processor until you have a finer texture)
• 100gr Flour
• 120gr Ground Almonds (or any ground nuts if almonds are not available)
• 1/4 teaspoons Salt
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 300gr Light Brown Moscovado Sugar 
• 4 Eggs
• 250ml Olive Oil ml -I use Nobleza del Sur's 5L Picual which works really well and is also nice and economical
• 150gr raspberries (fresh or frozen) - I usually bake with frozen raspberries and serve with fresh

Lemon Syrup

• 4 lemons
• 100gr White Sugar

Heat your oven to 180 degrees (170 if it's a fan oven)

Combine all the dry ingredients for the cake along with the grated rind of the lemons in a bowl and mix well.

Turn on your mixer and add the eggs to the dry ingredients one at a time.

Keep the mixer running and slowly pour in eat the olive oil and beat until all the ingredients are combined to form a thick batter.

Put the mixture into a greased cake tin and top with the raspberries. 

Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes checking after 35 minutes. If the top is golden, cover with some tinfoil for the rest of the baking. Continue checking every five minutes to ensure the cake doesn't overcook. The cake is done when a skewer comes out more or less clean. I say more or less because it's easy to overdo things so err on the under rather than overdone side of things.

While the cake is baking prepare the lemon syrup by combining the juice of 4 lemons in a pan with the white sugar. Bring to the boil then simmer to a syrup with the consistency of single cream then set aside.

When the cake comes out of the oven prick the top with fork then while it's still in the tin drizzle the syrup over the top and set aside to cool. 

This cake is best eaten at room temperature and will keep well for 3 or 4 days in a tin but believe me it won't last that long!