This must be one of the easiest cakes I’ve ever made … Or at least it would have been, had the morning not been a comedy of errors.
First up the butter I was melting in the oven (no I don’t have a microwave) tipped and spilled as I went to get it out. Interesting upside is that melted butter apparently makes a great cleaner when wiped off the bottom of a hot oven. Who knew. Of course my oven now smells like butter every time it’s turned on.
Then I completely forgot to put said butter (the second batch) into the mix, remembering only when the batter was already in the prepared tin. So back out the batter came, the butter was whisked in, and the pan was washed, re-greased, re-floured and re-filled.
At this stage, as much as I hopped all would be ok, I’m a bit too superstitious not to expect a third incident…
If only to prove me right the cake decided that it liked being in the pan more than it wanted to be on a rack — and no amount of encouragement or threatening would convince it to drop out in once piece.
Luckily however, the pieces puzzled back together and no one was the wiser — but to tell you the truth, by that point I’d decided that it could be broken up into a perfect rustic trifle if all else failed.
It’s only cake after all, and so long as it tastes good who really cares what it looks like? How’s that for a mantra.
So after all the unnecessary drama I know you’re dying to know what the cake was like in the end.
Well based on the second and third pieces (plus a few sneaky take home slices) devoured by mates at our regular Sunday evening sunset beach session, I’d say it was a hit.
But where on earth did this intriguing recipe come from? Well for that I must thank Sally from Bewitching Kitchen — my February assignment for Secret Recipe Club.
Sally is a biochemist (!) who grew up in Brazil, and as a result of her background there are plenty of South American recipes that pop up on her site. While combing through her recipe index — including an enormous number of gorgeous sounding breads — I kept coming back to her Brazilian dishes.
The bite-size Pao de Queijo (little cheese bites) were quite tempting but something about the interesting combo of ingredients in the Bolo de Fuba (cornmeal cake) took hold and wouldn’t let go.
Of course I changed a few things, but I did stay more true to the recipe than usual!
The main alteration was substituting fresh ricotta from the deli for the farmer’s cheese, this was a necessary step as the latter isn’t readily available in Sydney. Then I reduced the milk a bit to accommodate for the extra moisture in the cheese.
Knowing how sticky South American deserts can be I must admit that I reduced the sugar pretty significantly — first taking it down by a third, then using panela instead of white sugar, and finally replacing the sweetened coconut with unsweetened. But the result was still sweet enough for everyone who tasted it, even with a slightly bitter chocolate topping, and made it quite a bit more acceptable as a breakfast alternative, ahem.
See how I just slid in a mention of that topping? Well this one is totally me, because coconut plus chocolate equals heaven. And besides, I’m a big believer that every cake can benefit from drizzled chocolate sauce — I hope that Sally agrees!
Coconut, Ricotta & Cornmeal Tea Cake (Bolo de Fuba)
Slightly sweet, and rich without being heavy, this really is the perfect cake to pair with a cup of tea or coffee — whether for breakfast, as an afternoon treat, or for a late night snack || Adapted from Bewitching Kitchen for SRC
Serves 8 – 12
INGREDIENTS
- 4 large eggs
- 2 ½ c milk (600 ml)
- 1 c rapadura/panela/coconut sugar, lightly packed (140 g)
- 2 Tbsp butter, softened (30 g)
- 2 Tbsp flour (20 g)
- 1 c cornmeal (155 g)
- 100g shredded coconut, unsweetened (approx 1 ½ c)
- 1 c ricotta, packed (225 g)
- 1 Tbsp baking powder (12 g)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
for the topping
- ¼ c coconut oil
- 1 – 2 Tbsp rice or maple syrup
- ¼ c cacao or cocoa powder
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Grease and flour a ring or bundt pan.
Combine all cake ingredients (eggs through salt) in a large bowl and puree with an immersion blender until well mixed (alternatively, combine in blender jug and pulse).
Pour into prepared pan and bake 45 – 50 mins until a skewer come out clean. Cool in pan 15 mins, loosen edges (outside and inner tube) with a knife and turn onto a rack to cool completely.
To make chocolate topping, gently warm coconut oil and syrup in a pan or over a bowl of hot water. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth then drizzle over cooled cake. You can double the topping if you wish to serve extra sauce with the cake.
COOK’S NOTES
- Cornmeal: sold as polenta in Australia.
- Weights: I use cup measures for everything but weighed them as I went for the above conversions. The shredded coconut was the only weight in the original recipe, the one I use is relatively dry so 100 g was just under 1 ½ c, if you have a scale go for weight over volume on this ingredient, otherwise the cups should be fine.
- Flour: as the structure of the cake comes mainly from the other ingredients you can sub the flour on the pan and in the batter with a good gluten-free blend to make the cake gluten free.
vegetarian // soy-free // nut-free // refined sugar-free // gluten-free with gf flour
Okay, go in then, cut me a LARGE slice please! That cake looks fabulous, great SRC pick. Karen
That cake looks amazing – I’m so sorry about the mishaps along the way, but so glad in the end you had such a delicious treat to enjoy and share – and of course chocolate drizzle makes EVERYTHING better (and bacon… bacon too). 🙂 Happy reveal day!
Some days you are just doomed from the get go. It looks like it turned out great in the end. No one would have known. From the sound of it though even if it had not looked great it still would have disappeared quickly. Happy Reveal Day!
Are you my sister? Have we been separated at birth? Because I exploded butter IN THE MICROWAVE the other day, and I tell you, it is a mess you don’t want to deal with
at any rate, your cake turned out absolutely spectacular!
beautiful!
There’s nothing wrong with having cake for breakfast! Right? 😉
Great save. I enjoyed browsing your blog this month and it is because you never say die so all of your posts and recipes turn out one way or the other.
Your photos always make me hungry! Great choice this month, it turned out absolutely beautiful!
I always look forward to seeing what you post for SRC Reveal Day – your photos are just gorgeous!!! And this recipe looks wonderful. You scored when you got Sally’s blog – I love her food!!
Oh, my gosh! I am soooooo ashamed! I did not recognize this as coming from my site! So I read the recipe, loved the photos, and did not pay attention to which site it came from!
Talk about a shock!
you made such a gorgeous cake, probably that’s why I could never in a million years it came from my site!
🙂
What a beautiful cake. There have been many times where I’ve forgotten ingredients in recipes, but usually I don’t catch the missing ingredient until after it bakes…so good for you for realizing it before it went into the oven!! Great job this month 🙂
I’m going to dream about this cake until I bake it! Seriously. This looks outrageous. I’m visiting from Group B today.
I like the sound of my oven smelling like butter every time I turn it on!! Must try that one 😉 Perfect cake (and photography) as always. x
Oh don’t you hate those incidents? I think yours turned out pretty well and if you hadn’t mentioned that there were a few cracks I doubt anyone would have noticed! Very interesting flavour combination.
I’d say that it turned out beautifully, especially considering all that happened!
Turned out beautiful. Sally’s blog is amazing isn’t it. So glad you could stay somewhat true to the recipe.
Interesting combination of flavors! I love your cute little forks too.
Sheesh! This cake sure did give you a hard time! I think it was well worth it, though… it looks and sounds delicious!
This is so beautiful and I love the chocolate drizzle – it’s healthy! One of these days I really must invest in a bundt pan for myself 🙂
What an absolutely beautiful cake! Great pick this month
Despite your troubles, this looks absolutely delicious! I’d love a big slice!
This sounds absolutely delicious. I love a dense cake and the combination of flavours are so fun.
I want a BIG slice of that cake, and I’m stealing your forks. Just letting you know. Great SRC pick this month! (Sorry it took me so long to get here to comment.)