The Best Polenta Orange Cake

Amazing polenta orange cake! It is soaked with syrup, so soft, moist, and delicious! The best sweet polenta cake I have ever had!

This polenta orange cake (also-known as malai dulce – sweet cornmeal - in Romanian) is the end of a long quest after a sweet and delicious recipe made with polenta. I’ve made many polenta cakes over the years, searching for the one I would like, the one I imagined so many times when reading some recipes. And this is it - the best orange and polenta cake recipe! Who says polenta is only for making savory dishes?

And if you would like to check more orange dessert recipes, have a look at the Orange Drizzle Cake, the Orange Tiramisu, or the Orange Popsicles.

Why is this the best recipe?

• Texture: The best there is! Soft, moist, and no grittiness, although the cornmeal was not cooked before.
• Taste: Incredibly delicious; you can really taste the oranges.
• Super easy to make: Stir the ingredients, bake, make the syrup, and soak the cake with it.
• Potluck cake: Easy to transport and eat without a plate and spoon.

Recipe ingredients

Polenta:

• I used medium cornmeal or polenta with a short cooking time; the instructions on the package indicated 10 minutes of cooking time. Choosing a cornmeal type that doesn’t need to be cooked for a long time helps against the grittiness you will experience if you use coarse cornmeal.
• Not corn flour, which is completely fine and smooth.

Semolina:

• For the same reason, I chose a fine/ soft semolina kind.
• I live in Germany, and there are two sorts of semolina here: the coarse/hard one that I use to make dumplings for soup and the fine/soft kind used to make semolina porridge or semolina desserts, for instance.

Oranges:

• It is preferable to use organic ones as you will also need the orange zest. Choose unwaxed oranges, wash them with hot water, and dry them well before zesting.
• You can also bake the cake with blood oranges.

Greek yogurt:

• Full-fat creamy yogurt.

Oil:

• A neutral-tasting kind of oil like canola or very mild sunflower oil. Don’t use olive oil or anything else with a pungent taste.

Other ingredients: eggs, sugar, milk, baking powder, vanilla sugar, vanilla extract or vanilla essence, lemon juice, icing sugar.

Recipe steps

Orange polenta cake:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a casserole dish, 28x18 cm/ 11x7 inches. Grate the zest of one of the whole oranges; you will need about 1 tablespoon of zest or more to taste.
• Dry ingredients: Mix the cornmeal, semolina, baking powder, and grated orange peel in a small bowl. Set aside (1).

• Eggs: Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla sugar, or vanilla extract and 50 g/ 1.7 oz/ scant ¼ cup of the yogurt until pale and thick (2). Use an electric mixer or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment.

• Add the vegetable oil in a slow stream while beating all the time. Add the rest of the yogurt and beat for about 1 minute. Add the milk and mix shortly (3).
• Slowly add the cornmeal – semolina mixture to the wet ingredients mixing with a regular eggbeater/whisk this time (4).

• Fold in the egg whites carefully (6). Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin (7).
• Bake for about 45 minutes or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Orange syrup:

• In the meantime, make the syrup.
• Juice the citrus fruit until you have about 100 ml/ ½ cup juice.
• Sieve the orange juice into a small saucepan; add the sugar and the lemon juice. Heat on medium heat. When it starts to boil, remove it immediately, you should have a relatively thin syrup (8).
• Once the polenta orange cake is ready, poke holes all over with a toothpick.
• Pour the syrup all over the top of the cake and let the cake cool completely in the dish (9).

Finish:

• Cut the cake into squares, remove them carefully from the baking dish, place them on a serving plate, and sprinkle with icing sugar.
• Decorate with orange slices if you wish.

Expert tips and FAQ

You might not need all the syrup to soak the polenta orange cake; I had a little leftover, but not much. Use as much as necessary and make sure to soak a bit more around the edges, should they be a little drier than the rest of the polenta dessert.

Recipe FAQ

More cakes with oranges

More polenta recipes

The Best Polenta Orange Cake

Amazing polenta orange cake! It is soaked with syrup, sosoft, moist, and delicious! The best sweet polenta cake I have ever had!

5 from 8 votes

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Course: Desserts

Cuisine: Romanian

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 12

Calories: 238kcal

Author: Adina

Equipment

• ▢
  Casserole dish, 28x18 cm/ 11x7 inches

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Ingredients 

Cake:

• ▢ 150 g 1 cup medium cornmeal (5.5 oz), Note 2
• ▢ 50 g ¼ cup fine/soft semolina (1.8 oz)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ 1 tablespoon grated orange peel optional (Note 3)
• ▢ 3 eggs large
• ▢ 125 g ⅔ cup granulated sugar (4.5 oz)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 450 g 1 ¾ cup Greek yogurt (1 lb), divided
• ▢ 100 ml scant ½ cup vegetable oil ( 3.5 fl.oz)
• ▢ 50 ml scant ¼ cup milk (1.7 fl.oz)
• ▢ icing sugar to dust
• ▢ 1 orange to decorate optional

For the orange syrup:

• ▢ the juice of 2-3 oranges about 100 ml/ 3.4 fl. oz/ scant ½ cup fresh juice
• ▢ 50 g ¼ cup sugar (1.7 oz)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions

Sweet polenta cake:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a casserole dish, 28x18 cm/ 11x7 inches.
• Mix the cornmeal, semolina, baking powder, and grated orange peel in a bowl. Set aside.
• Eggs: Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla sugar, or vanilla extract and 50 g/ 1.7 oz/ scant ¼ cup of the yogurt until pale and thick.
• Add the vegetable oil in a slow stream while beating all the time.
• Add the rest of the yogurt and beat for about 1 minute.
• Add the milk and mix shortly.
• Slowly add the cornmeal – semolina mixture mixing with a regular egg beater/whisk this time.
• Fold in the egg whites carefully.
• Bake: Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and bake for about 45 minutes or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Orange syrup:

• In the meantime, make the orange syrup. Juice the oranges until you have about 100 ml/ ½ cup juice. Sieve the juice into a small pot add the sugar and the lemon juice.
• When it starts to boil, remove it immediately, you should have a relatively thin syrup.
• Poke cake: When baked, take the cake out of the oven and prick it all over with a toothpick.
• Soak cake: Pour about ¾ of the syrup all over the cake. Add a bit more around the edges, should they be drier than the rest of the cake.
• Cool completely in the dish. Cut the cake into squares, remove carefully from the baking dish and sprinkle with icing sugar. Decorate with orange wedges if you wish.

Notes

1. A digital kitchen scale will give you the most precise measure ensuring the best bake possible (Amazon affiliate link).
2. Look for a sort with a short cooking time – mine needed only 10 minutes.
3. From an organic, unwaxed orange.

Nutrition

Serving: 1square | Calories: 238kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 49mg | Sodium: 120mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g

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