Cook: 70-80 minutes
Serves: 12-14 people
For quite some time, this was my breakfast cake. I would often start work a fair few hours before my fellow chefs and, as much as I adore them all, those quiet hours before the sun came up were my favourite in the day. With the whole kitchen to myself, I would slouch over my bench and write my prep list for the day while shovelling in a slab of this cake. Would we call it the breakfast of champions? It’s arguable! It’s one of the trustiest cakes I know. It behaves very well every bake, and is always a crowd-pleaser. The gritty texture from the polenta, and the moist almost fudge-like interior (thanks to the generous whack of butter) makes this a bit of a special one.
This recipe definitely doesn’t need an icing. A drizzle of honey, coupled with the candied fennel, and you’re sorted.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (315°F) fan-bake. Grease and line a 26 cm (10½ in) cake tin.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, honey, zest and vanilla until pale and thick; about 2–3 minutes.
- Add the eggs one by one, mixing until fully combined. At this stage the batter may look slightly split but it will come back together.
- Working by hand now, add the ground almonds, polenta, salt and baking powder and gently fold until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 70–80 minutes until it is a deep golden brown and the centre bounces back when pressed lightly. Don’t worry if the cake looks quite brown — honey caramelises faster than sugar — but if you’re worried about it getting too dark, loosely cover with tin foil halfway through the bake.
- Let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- While the cake is cooling, get onto the candied fennel.
- In a small pot, add the sugar and water and bring to the boil over a medium-high heat. Stir continuously until the mixture becomes syrupy; this should only take 2–3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and add the fennel seeds, continuing to stir until the mixture crystallises; the seeds will almost look a little dry and dusty.
- Quickly remove from the heat and continue to stir until the seeds have separated. Pour onto a lined tray and allow to cool.
- To serve, drizzle the cake with a little honey and scatter with the candied fennel. This cake is sensational served as is, or with a dollop of Greek yoghurt.
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Ingredients
440 g (15½ oz) butter, softened
320 g (11¼ oz) caster sugar
140 g (5 oz) honey, plus extra to drizzle
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla paste
6 eggs
450 g (1 lb) ground almonds
225 g (8 oz) instant polenta
1 tsp flaky salt
1½ tsp baking powder
Greek yoghurt, to serve (optional)
Candied Fennel
3 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp water
3 tbsp fennel seeds