This cake – a tender, forgiving, summer-loving sort of a thing – has polenta in the batter and is soaked in lime syrup, but has the added bonus of strawberries, which sink into the sponge and bring all their jammy sweetness with them. It couldn’t be easier, particularly if you make it in a cast-iron pan, as I do, which means you don’t even need to bother lining it. All you really have to do is remember to get the butter out to soften. After that it’s a bit of whisking, into the pan, and it’ll sort itself out with minimal fuss. Even so, it feels special. A proper treat of a pudding to put smiles on faces, to share with thick cream or crème fraîche and to send people home with a slice for tomorrow.
The latest cookbook by House & Garden’s lifestyle director Eleanor Steafel, But First, Dinner: Food for Our Real Lives, offers more than 60 mouthwatering recipes – whether you want ideas for a feast in the garden, a kitchen supper or easy snacks when you're hosting friends. This is one of her favourite recipes.
Recipe information
Yield
Serves 8
Ingredients
For the cake
For the Syrup
To serve
whipped cream with a little natural yogurt folded through it
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/mark 4. Take an ovenproof pan (I use an iron skillet that’s 25cm in diameter and 5cm deep, but you could use a cake tin of a similar size). Grease it liberally with butter.
Step 2
Put the butter and caster sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a big mixing bowl if beating with an electric whisk. Beat until pale and fluffy.
Step 3
Add the eggs bit by bit, beating well between each addition. When they are fully incorporated, add the lime zest and beat well. Add the flour and the polenta with a big pinch of salt, and fold in using a big metal spoon.
Step 4
Take the stalks off the strawberries and halve them (quarter any particularly big ones). Scrape the batter into the prepared skillet. Arrange about two-thirds of the strawberries on top – don’t worry about creating a neat pattern as the fruit will sink into the batter.
Step 5
Put in the oven and cook for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Step 6
Meanwhile, make the syrup. Put the lime juice and granulated sugar in a small saucepan over a low heat. Bring to a simmer and then cook for about 8 minutes, or until you have a tangy syrup. Leave to cool to room temperature.
Step 7
When the cake comes out of the oven, let it cool in the skillet for 5 minutes, then use a pastry brush to brush the top with most of the lime syrup (keep back 1tbsp). Leave to cool in the skillet on a wire rack.
Step 8
Put the remaining strawberries in a bowl with the 1tbsp lime syrup and leave to sit while the cake cools. Serve generous slices of the cake with the strawberries and
dollops of crème fraîche, or the thick or whipped cream.
