Muscat Love

If you can swing it, make this with a strong, top-quality honey (I use Old Raw Blue Honey’s dreamy pumpkin honey) and a really grassy olive oil. Recipe after the jump.

Second draft of this polenta grape cake — this one with a little less liquid, walnuts added to the batter (for flavor and texture), and pine nuts on top instead of pistachios (because I ran out of pistachios). Oh, and muscat grapes! Wonderful, magical muscat grapes. Not as pretty as red table grapes, but the flavor is peerless. Once it cools a bit more I’ll be able to report on crumb, but overall I’m pleased with this! (I’m already thinking about nocino ice cream to pair.) 🍇 🍯 🍰 🍇 🍯 🍰#cakestagram #baking #cake #muscat #grapes #recipetesting #food52 #f52grams #instacake #foodstagram #bonappetit #forkyeah #sweets #treats #tea #dessert #mediterranean #oliveoil #honey

A post shared by Heather Arndt Anderson (@heatherarndtanderson) on May 7, 2018 at 3:47pm PDT

Olive Oil-Grape Cake with Polenta and Walnuts

2 cups flour
1/2 cup polenta*
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cardamom

2 eggs
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tbsp walnut oil (optional, but adds to the fragrance)
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup honey

2 cups grapes (preferably a fragrant variety like muscat, but red or black grapes are pretty)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup pine nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F and grease/paper a 9″ springform pan. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined, then fold in half of the grapes and the walnuts. Pour into the prepared springform pan, bake for 15 minutes, then sprinkle the remaining grapes and pine nuts (if using) on top. {I find that the cake bakes best if the grapes are concentrated around the edges so that the center bakes more thoroughly.} Return to the oven and bake an additional 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted toward the center comes out dry (make sure you dodge the grapes when doing this!).

Please note that I use a gas convection oven, and have to drape a sheet of foil over the cake to prevent over-browning.

*I’m going to continue working with this recipe; I find the coarse polenta a teeny bit more toothsome than I find pleasant, so I’ll try this with a finer grind cornmeal for comparison. I also want to see how it turns out with semolina or almond meal.