Day 111: Gluten-free chocolate and orange polenta cake

For a while there, I had myself convinced that any recipe I’d ever make that involved a meringue mixture was going to turn out a disaster. Thankfully though, I’m happy to report that tonight’s offering is at least one meringue-related recipe that turned out well! What was it? It was a dessert called Gluten-free chocolate and orange polenta cake.

I used quite a few bowls for this recipe and, in Bowl No.1, I melted dark chocolate and butter over a simmering pot of hot water. In Bowl No.2, I whisked 5 egg yolks with caster sugar for about 5 minutes until the mixture was light in fluffy. In Bowl No.3, I whisked 5 egg whites until they started to form soft peaks. At that point, I added caster sugar and whisked for another 5 minutes. Next on the to-do list was to add the egg yolk mixture into the hot chocolate mixture and I folded it in. Into the same bowl went the zest of one orange, polenta and the meringue mixture – again, I folded it in. The last thing I had to do was to put it into a spring-form cake tin which was lined on the bottom with parchment paper with the sides smeared with butter. Into the oven the cake went. The recipe said to bake it for 25 minutes or until such times as a skewer inserted into the centre came out clean. At the 25-minute mark, I checked it with the skewer but there was still a wee bit of the mixture on the skewer so I checked it in another 5 minutes but still not ready. Another 5 minutes and the mixture was just about cooked through so I took it out of the oven. I let it sit in the tin for a short time and then put it on a plate and dusted with icing sugar.

The verdict…

A surprising 8 marks out of 10 was the verdict from Dear Husband. The reason I was surprised because if you look at the picture of my cake and compare it to the picture in Rachel’s cookbook, it’s pretty obvious which one is Rachel’s cake and which one is mine. As you know by now, recipes that involve anything to do with meringue mixtures are dodgy territory for me so although my cake (for some reason) needed to cook longer and wasn’t perfect, Dear Husband still enjoyed it. He actually knew it was ‘some kind of healthier chocolate cake’ from its taste so I let him in on the secret that it didn’t actually have flour in it. Regardless, he said that he’d have it again. I’m thinking it’s a good recipe to have if you ever have a coeliac visit your house and, even if you don’t, this recipe will still be a hit.

Something which I didn’t really expect was a tiny clue as to why my meringues were a disaster away back in the early days of this blog. On Rachel’s advice, I purchased an oven thermometer that just sits on the shelf and I know from cooking on lower temperatures like this evening’s (160°C), there is definitely a discrepancy between what it says and what the dial on my oven says. Therein lies my problem I think so I will bear that in mind any time I’m making a meringue-based recipe and I have vowed to attempt the meringues again in the not too distant future. Until then, I’ll be making my Chocolate and orange polenta cake and buying my M&S packet meringues.