Chocolate Polenta Cake: Dark and Sophisticated
A simple yet sophisticated bake which works particularly well as an adult dessert. It’s very rich and not overly sweet and is delicious served with cream and raspberries. It’s a bit of a winner too because my recipe for chocolate polenta cake is naturally gluten-free.
Since I started my blog over three years ago, I have only made one of my three go to chocolate cake recipes from my pre-blog days. This is not one of them. It’s such a simple cake to make and it performs so well, I don’t quite understand why I haven’t made it for such a long time.
Vital Spark Cakes
As it turned out, I needed a gluten-free cake for the Vital Spark book swap event, I helped out with last month. I thought it better to be covered, just in case. When I was trying to decide what to make, Charlotte of Go Free Cakes suggested the Pink Whisk’s clementine polenta cake. It was a brilliant idea as it reminded me of my very own chocolate polenta cake. No more thinking required.
I’d been meaning to make a raspberry version ever since Divine sent me a bar of their 70% dark chocolate with raspberries. So for this event I went with a raspberry chocolate polenta cake.
One person attending the event was indeed gluten intolerant. She was so delighted there was something there that she could eat and it really made my day.
Chocolate Polenta Cake
Apart from chocolate, the main ingredients are polenta and ground almonds. This makes it completely gluten free, so it’s a perfect cake to bake for mass gatherings.
It’s a fantastically rich cake that I’ve made many times before. With all that chocolate and cocoa in it, I guess that’s no surprise. It’s easy to make, tastes great and has never yet let me down. It’s quite a sophisticated cake and will appeal to many adults, but not so much the children. As it’s so rich, you only need a small piece, which also makes this cake ideal for entertaining.
I would suggest it’s more of a dinner party cake than a tea time treat. CT describes it as a cake for all seasons, as it does many things at the same time. With due consideration, after the first time he tried it, he said “this is the thinking man’s chocolate torte”.
The method is a simple melt in the pan process. No creaming of rock hard butter required. I don’t know about you, but I often bake quite spontaneously, so rarely manage to get the butter out of the fridge to warm up in time.
It’s not quite a one pan method, however. You need to whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl. There’s no raising agent in this chocolate polenta cake other than the eggs, so it’s important to get as much air in as possible. Just carefully fold in the whites once you’ve mixed the rest of the ingredients together.
One of the really nice things about making this cake is that you don’t need to worry about over mixing it. As there’s no flour, there’s no gluten to potentially toughen the cake. That is, of course, until you add the whisked egg white at the end, then you have to go carefully to ensure you knock as little of the air out as possible.
When the chocolate polenta cake bakes it rises in the middle, but as it cools it flattens out nicely.
It’s not the prettiest of cakes straight out of the tin, so either dust it with icing sugar or cocoa powder before serving.
Raspberry Chocolate Polenta Cake
My chocolate polenta cake is delicious served with raspberries. So, as stated above, I thought I’d make a raspberry version for the book swap event. I used a 100g bar of Divine’s 70% dark chocolate with raspberries to replace the normal dark chocolate. It’s a simple, but quite effective idea. I also swapped the Marsala for my own homemade redcurrant liqueur.
The raspberry chocolate gives a subtle fruity note which you might not detect unless you’re looking for it.
Why Is Polenta Cake Grainy?
The secret to a good chocolate polenta cake is in the type of polenta you use. Polenta comes in three grades: fine, medium and course. You need to use fine polenta for this cake, otherwise the texture will be grainy.
Gluten Free Warning
There is no guarantee that the chocolate and possibly other products used in this recipe are 100% gluten free. This is because companies such as Divine and Green & Black’s produce their chocolate in a factory where products containing gluten are made. So there might be traces of gluten present.
This may not matter for many, but it could effect those suffering from coeliac disease. Likewise, this may be the case for other ingredients too, such as polenta.
If it matters, always check that the ingredients you use are certified gluten-free.
Other Polenta Recipes You Might Like
- Choc chip honey cornbread
- Corn spinach polenta
- Custard creams (gluten-free)
- Eve’s pudding
- Rhubarb polenta cake
- Smokey sweetcorn pepper fritters
Stay in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this simple yet sophisticated chocolate polenta cake, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Chocolate Polenta Cake. PIN IT.
Chocolate Polenta Cake
Ingredients
- 150 g unsalted butter
- 150 g muscovado sugar
- 100 g dark chocolate (70% or even 85%)
- 30 g cocoa powder
- 75 g fine polenta
- 75 g ground almonds
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp Marsala (or brandy)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4).
- Place the butter, sugar and chocolate in a large pan over a very low heat and leave to melt. Stir until combined. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.150 g unsalted butter, 150 g muscovado sugar, 100 g dark chocolate
- Separate the eggs and beat the yolks into the butter mixture along with the marsala.2 eggs, 1 tbsp Marsala
- Sieve in the cocoa powder and stir. Then add the polenta and ground almonds and stir until just combined.30 g cocoa powder, 75 g fine polenta, 75 g ground almonds
- Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff. This is easiest done with electric beaters, but you can do it by hand if you're feeling strong. Fold carefully into the chocolate mixture so that you don't lose too much air.
- Bake in a 20cm (8") prepared round cake tin for 35-40 minutes or until firm to the touch.
- Leave in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Sprinkle with a little sieved icing sugar or cocoa powder and serve with raspberries. A dollop of cream or crème fraîche is a good addition too.
You clarified when to put in the melted butter sugar and chocolate, but what about the egg whites and cocoa powder/polenta mix?! Do we add the cocoa/polenta mix and then egg whites? Or the egg whites and then cocoa/polenta mix?
Hi Simon. I’m a bit confused. The instructions are all there in the recipe card. You beat the egg yolks into the melted chocolate mixture, then add the polenta, ground almonds etc, then finally fold in the whisked egg whites.
I’m half way through making this cake and the instructions aren’t clear about when to add the melted butter, sugar and chocolate. When does that go in?
Hi Kate, I’m so sorry for not seeing this earlier. I understand it’s too late now. The recipe says to beat the egg yolks into the melted butter, but I can see it’s not completely clear. Will amend. Thank you for pointing it out and I really hope you managed to make the cake successfully.
nice to revisit this recipe. I was just going to order some polenta in my groceries so it may very well feature on my table soon.
Before I started the blog, it was the cake I usually made for visitors. Now, of course, I rarely make the same cake twice.
I have never made a polenta cake. One to try – thanks for the recipe.
I have just printed this off on the colour printer at work (saves my ink lol) to send home to try. Looks great!
Hope you enjoy it Giles, if you like it, you can play around with the flavours for future bakes.
I have tried this but the polenta was quite crunchy – so maybe I need to see out fine ground polenta and see if that makes a difference because other than that the cake seems lovely – though I tried this last night and managed to make a mess of it but through no fault of the recipe – just too distracted to watch the oven timer!
Johanna, sorry you didn’t get to taste it at its best. I use fine polenta (have amended recipe now) which gives a little bit of texture, but hopefully in a nice way. I’ve tried it with coarser polenta in the past and it’s not as good IMHO.
This looks good. I love the combniation of chocolate and raspberry. I’ll have to try a polenta cake too as so far I’ve only ever had polenta in savoury dishes.
Polenta is very different to flour, but it makes for a really interesting cake.
I must try polenta cakes – the only one I ever made was pronounced ‘a bit crunchy’ and not well received, so I must try again. This looks like a lovely recipe, and so pleasing that you had a visitor who benefitted from it too!
C, thank you. I think some folk don’t like the texture, but if you use fine ground polenta, the crunch isn’t as noticeable.
I havent baked a polenta cake in ages. I’ve only ever tried it with lemon so would love to try a chocolate polenta cake.
Lemon sounds good Roz, what did you think?
I do love a polenta cake. Such a good texture that works so well in both sweet & savoury dishes. A brilliant idea!
Oh good Laura, glad to find another polenta lover – there seem to be a few who are not quite so keen.
Lovely! How about substituting some of the ground almonds for dried raspberries to give a more raspberry hit but without making the mixture too wet if you added fresh??
That’s a good idea, but I think I’d just add them rather than substituting. Or better still, just eat it with fresh raspberries – I’ve done that on a few occasions, oh, err, and did I mention the cream!
This cake sounds delicious. I’ve never baked anything sweet with polenta – does it add a slightly grainy texture to the cake or is it nice and smooth?
It certainly gives a slightly crunchy texture, which most seem to like. I use fine polenta now. I’ve made it with coarse and that really is just too crunchy.
This is one I have to make!!
Hope you like it Rosanna – I was quite excited about using the Divine raspberry chocolate in it.
Yeh I wanted this recipe! I wish I had seen it earlier as I just made a whole load of gluten free bakes – I ended up making a lemon and berry polenta cake instead as I was not sure of the ratios. I am doing a post on gluten free bakes as I often get asked to make some. I bookmarked the chocolate one so is on my to do list. Do you think white choclate would also work?
Cakeboule, lemon & berry polenta cake sounds delicious. I’ve made Nigella’s rhubarb and polenta cake a few times and that’s really good too. White chocolate would make quite a different cake, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Chocolate polenta cake – that’s creative and I’ve never heard of using polenta to make a cake (even a gluten-free variety). It looks delicious and although I’ve never baked with chocolate that already included raspberries, I love to serve warm raspberries over chocolate cake (especially if I have a little vanilla ice cream to go with it)…
JW – polenta cakes are quite different, but very good. Nigella does a nice rhubarb and polenta cake which I’ve made a few times. Fresh raspberries go really well with this cake too, but as you say chocolate and raspberries – mmmmm!
Fantastic, I need a few gluten free recipes for the summer as we may have a guest who is gluten intolerant! I will be contacting Charlotte for some ideas in a few weeks, but will try this lovely recipe next week, Thanks. Jude x
It is a good one Jude. Did you get to make it in the end?
I am a BIG lover of polenta in baking and this cake looks wonderful. I have a lavender and polenta cake recipe that I serve with raspberries, and it is always a hit…..but, I bet that chocolate and polenta is a great combination.
Karen so glad you like polenta – there do seem to be a few doubters. Love the thought of your lavender version – when are you posting it?
beautiful and perfect for passover with its un-leavened nature and lack of flour!.. the combo of raspberries and chocolate is rather sensuous too!
Ah Dom, it must be my Jewish roots that somehow got me posting this for Passover!
Raspberry chocolate sounds wonderful! And I like that it’s gluten free. Looks yum!
It’s good to have a few good gluten free recipes that stand on their own.
This sounds lovely. I wonder, could you add some fresh raspberries in to it to up the raspberry flavour? Anyway, sounds so delish I will definitely give it a go. 🙂
Yes, I have been thinking I might try it with fresh raspberries. It’s certainly very good served with raspberries. If you do make it, do let me know what you think.
It looks lovely and I’m sure greatly appreciated by all. I’d love to see what some of your other ‘go to’ cakes are.
Ah thanks Katie – others may appear in due course 😉
Raspberries and chocolate go so very well together. That is a delicious tart that looks amazingly dark, moist and full of flavour xx
Thank you – raspberries and chocolate seem to be a well loved classic.
Sounds great. I love what ground almonds does to a cake.
Thanks Janice – quite interesting what polenta does to a cake too.
Oh wow, what an amazing recipe! I was just speaking to a friend about baking with duck eggs and this looks like a great cake to start with. Thanks for sharing – it looks divine!
Thanks Jaime – I use duck eggs for baking whenever I can get them.
LOL can you STOP posting chocolate recipes! I think I might just try this one, I’m curious about how polenta works in baking;)
Fiona if you haven’t yet tried this, do use fine polenta – medium or coarse makes it a bit to gritty. I may well stop posting chocolate recipes at some point, but I’m not quite ready to give up yet 😉