This moist, easy-to-make low Fodmap chocolate-orange cake is perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. If you feel that fructose is one of your biggest symptom-triggers, leave out the orange syrup; it’ll still be delicious. Be sure to stick to one slice per serving. This recipe comes straight from my book, The Low FODMAP 6-week Plan & Cookbook, which you can buy online or in bookstores. Here it is on Amazon.
Chocolate and Orange Polenta Cake
Author: Suzanne Perazzini
Serves: 12 slices
Ingredients
For the cake
- 5.3 ounces (150 g) butter, at room temperature
- 5.3 ounces (150 g) superfine granulated white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1½ (8 g) tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1½ tablespoons (25 ml) hot water
- ⅓ cup (32 g) ground almonds
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅓ cup (47 g) quick-cook fine-grain polenta
- 1 tablespoon (6 g) grated orange peel
- ½ cup (55 g) chopped pecans
- 12 whole pecans
For the syrup
- Juice of 1 orange
- 1.8 ounces (50 g) granulated sugar
For the glaze
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 ml) orange juice
- Water (if needed)
Method
- First, make the cake. Preheat the oven to 325°F (170°C, or gas mark 3). Grease a 7.5-in (19 cm) springform cake pan and line with parchment paper.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
- Mix the cocoa with the hot water and stir until dissolved. Then fold into the butter mixture.
- In a separate bowl, combine the almonds, baking powder, cinnamon, polenta, and orange peel.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir in the pecans.
- Spoon the mixture into the cake pan and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly in the pan.
- Then, prepare the syrup. Combine the orange juice with the sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring regularly, for 5 minutes or until slightly reduced and thickened.
- Make holes in the cake with a skewer and pour syrup over the cake while it is still hot. When cool, remove the cake from the pan.
- Finally, prepare the glaze. Mix the powdered sugar and orange juice to form a thin paste. Add water if necessary to reach a runny, pourable consistency.
- Pour the glaze over the cooled cake and let it drip over the edges.
- Garnish whole pecans.
- Allow the glaze to set and then serve.
- Store in an airtight container for 2 days or freeze in slices for 2 to months.
This recipie did not work at all. The butter/sugar curdled when adding the eggs one by one and the cake did not set at all in the oven, just a bubbly frothy mess. I feel like the amount of dry ingredients listed is not correct and needs to be more.
I am sorry this did not work out for you. I have made this recipe several times and it was even tested in a test kitchen for my cookbook. It’s really important to use the right kind of polenta. I suspect that may have been where the problem happened. A little curdling of the egg/butter mixture would not change the outcome of the cake.