Full question
I adore the Lemon Polenta Cake but now have to cut down my sugar content and don't want to use alternative sweeteners. I can deal with the drizzle bit but is it possibe to reduce the sugar and increase the polenta or almond meal? Many thanks for any thoughts.
Our answer
Nigella's Lemon Polenta Cake (from KITCHEN) is a gluten-free cake made with polenta and ground almonds (almond meal or almond flour). The cake is topped with a lemon syrup, which sinks into the cake.
You can, as mentioned, omit the lemon syrup from the cake. The cake is quite moist because it includes ground almonds, though the syrup adds a little extra moisture and flavour. However, we would be worried about reducing the sugar in the cake batter. The sugar helps with the structure of the cake (particularly when creamed with the butter in step 3) and helps to keep the cake fresh. In addition, without the syrup adding an extra level of flavour, the cake with reduced sugar could taste a bit bland and flat. So on balance we would prefer not to reduce the sugar in the cake batter but to leave out the syrup at the end.
Tell us what you think
Thank you {% member.data['first-name'] %}.
Explore more questionsYour comment has been submitted.