Orange Instead Of Lemon

Asked by Pavlovamad. Answered on 10th October 2016

Full question

Hi there, I've baked the delicious Lemon Polenta Cake a few times now and have always had excellent results. I wondered if it were possible to swap lemon for orange and if so would the amounts of juice and zest differ?

Our answer

Nigella's Lemon Polenta Cake (from KITCHEN) is flavoured with lemon zest and then soaked with a lemon syrup. It is possible to convert the cake to an orange version and would be particularly good if made with Seville oranges, when they are in season. The finely grated zest of 2 lemons should be replaced with the finely grated zest of 2 oranges.

As oranges tend to yield more juice than lemons, you will not need all of the juice from two oranges. Two lemons give approximately 100-125ml (7 tablespoons - 1/2 cup) juice so we would suggest using 125ml (1/2 cup) of orange juice. The syrup will be sweeter with regular orange juice (though not with Seville oranges) so you may want to reduce the sugar slightly, according to your personal preference.