ALMOND, POLENTA & RUM PLUM CAKE

The sad reality of blogging about food and working full-time in the winter is that sometimes you're not 100% happy with a post. While I don't think these photos are bad per say, they came out so dark I had to play with the exposure so much, resulting in the cake looking much more orange than it actually is. Nobody did anything wrong; the recipe turned out beautifully but somewhere between taking the cake out of the oven and setting up, the light went and that was that.

If I had the luxury of doing this full-time there would be no issue: the cake would be saved for tomorrow and I would get my perfect pictures. But I have a job and this cake, made on a Sunday, would have had to wait to be sliced and eaten until the following weekend, which is a waste. Yes, I could make it again, but delicious as it is, I don't feel like eating the same cake again just yet! The thing is, I work hard on my blog. I sacrifice weekends, healthy eating, seeing friends to get it to look the way I want it to and of course it's paid off - I've been tagged in people's posts who've made my recipes and I'm working with some amazing brands - so as sad as I am about these pictures of a beautiful cake that I couldn't make look quite as beautiful as it actually was, it's fine because this blog is my passion and my hobby, I love it and the cake is darn delicious, so go make it, okay? (Rant over).

I used Jamie Oliver's polenta cake recipe with a few tasty additions and subtractions.

For the cake
200g butter at room temperature
200g demerara sugar
3 large free-range eggs
200g ground almonds
100g course polenta
Zest of an orange
1tsp baking powder

For the topping
6 plums, halved and stoned
1 stick cinnamon
5 cloves
50ml rum
2tsp demerara sugar
Handful toasted flaked almonds
Juice of an orange

Preheat the oven to 160C. Beat together the sugar and butter until creamy and then beat in add in the eggs one-by-one and stir to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the ground almonds, polenta, orange zest and baking powder. Pour the mixture into a tin lined with greaseproof paper.

In a pan, heat the rum with 1tsp sugar, the cinnamon stick and the cloves. Place the plums flesh side down in the pan and heat until bubbling and the rum has mostly disappeared (about 5 - 10 mins on a medium heat). Press into the top of the cake and sprinkle with the almonds.

Bake for 40 - 50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean from the centre. If the cake starts to brown too much, cover it with foil for the last 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and poke holes in the top using a fork or skewer. Mix together the orange juice and the remaining teaspoon of sugar and pour over the cake.

p.s. the lack of light in my kitchen also explains why most of my food photos are actually taken on a bed...I don't eat all my meals on cosy blankets, btw!