Sometimes you just want cake. It comes out of nowhere, the desire and it won’t leave you until you’ve satisfied it, you want, you need…cake.
It hit me yesterday, it came on me with the full force of a sweet desire. I didn’t want to purchase cake, unfortunately most cakes are refrigerated and that leaves them with a hard crumb and a waxy frosting, that’s not what I wanted. I wanted something homey, not real sweet, tender and moist and fresh, fresh, fresh!
Since I wasn’t going to be baking until after work I wanted a cake that I could throw together easily, something with a bit of texture to it and icing dripping down the side. I decided on a cornmeal cake. One of my favorite cakes is the classic Italian Amore Polenta which is a pound cake made with coarse ground cornmeal. I typically serve it with berries and softly beaten sweetened cream. I had some blackberries in the house, so I decided to toss them into my cake and I glazed it with a vanilla cream glaze while it was still hot. I gave it another 15 minutes to settle into its flavors and (plus if you cut into a cake while it’s still hot it dries the cake once it’s cooled) and served myself a portion. It was exactly what I wanted, warm, buttery, moist, tender with a bite of cornmeal, berries plumped with baking, not sweet at all, the sweetness primarily coming from the creamy icing. And then I served myself another slice, went to bed, and had another slice for breakfast the next day. Because you know, sometimes you just need cake.
Blackberry Cornmeal Cake
Butter and Flour One 8-inch Cake Pan
1 C flour
½ C cornmeal
1 ½ t baking powder
¼ t baking soda
1 t salt
3.5 oz butter, room temperature
2/3 C sugar
1 ½ T honey
2 T vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract
1 C blackberries
Icing
1 ½ C powdered sugar
2-3 T cream
½ t vanilla
Place powdered sugar in a bowl and add enough cream for icing to be thick but pourable. Stir in vanilla, cover and set aside until ready to use.
Combine first five ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl cream the butter and sugar until combined. Beat in the honey, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until blended. Add the berries and stir until combined. Spoon into the prepared pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until the cake is lightly browned and cooked in the center. Let cool about 10 minutes in the pan and then invert onto a serving dish. Evenly spread the icing over the top of cake, letting it drip down the sides.
Serves 8
