Not too sweet and perfect with coffee or tea on a cold winters afternoon. Also one of those brilliant cakes easy to make in a rental holiday house, as all you need by way of equipment is a saucepan, cake pan and spoon.
- 500mL water
- 140g polenta (instant is better for this)
- Pinch of salt
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 125g caster sugar
- 60g pine nuts or macadamias
- 180g dried figs, cut into pieces (I like turkish figs)
- 40g butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 115g plain flour.
Preheat oven to 200C
Grease a 20cm cake tin, springform if you got it.
Bring the water to the boil in a largish saucepan. Add the polenta in a constant stream and cook as per packet instructions. Polenta should be coming away from the sides of the pan. Add the olive oil and salt and stir well.
Remove from the pan from the heat and stir in the butter, sugar, nuts, figs, flour, rosemary and egg (as in every other ingredient left out on the bench). Stir until well combined, then spoon out into your prepared cake tin. Flatten the mixture a bit with a spatula if you are feeling fussy.
Throw into the oven for 40-45 minutes, usual trick of a skewer coming out clean applies. Cake should be golden and slightly crisp around the edges.
Allow to cool and dust for effect with icing sugar. Serve with double cream or greek yoghurt.