Lemon and Pine Polenta Cake

• 200g butter, softened
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 lemons, zest of both, juice of 1
• 2tsp finely chopped light green pine needles
• 175g ground almonds
• 1tsp baking powder
• 150g fine polenta
• 2tbsp pine nuts

for the topping

• 2tbsp caster sugar
• 1tbsp pine needles

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/ 150 fan/gas mark 3.
2. Line a 2lb loaf tin.
3. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs, one by one, beating in between each addition.
4. Add the zest of the 2 lemons and mix in the juice from 1 of the lemons.
5. Stir in the 2tsp finely chopped pine needles. Then stir in the ground almonds, baking powder and polenta. Be careful not to over mix, but make sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf tin, smoothing down the top. Scatter over the pine nuts and push them slightly into the batter.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Loosely cover with a little foil or baking paper if the top is getting too dark golden during cooking.
8. Meanwhile, blitz the topping ingredients in a spice grinder until you have a green sugar sprinkle. (if you don’t have a spice grinder, very finely chop the needles and bash in a pestle and mortar with the sugar until green and powdery).
9. Once cooked, leave the cake to cool, in the tin on a cooling rack until just warm. Then remove from the tin and leave on the cooling rack until cooled completely.
10. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the pine/sugar topping before slicing. Alternatively, you can add it to the cake whilst still warm to give a sugar crust.

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