The easiest and yet best cake ever...Lemon Polenta Cake

This is an absolute fool-proof and yet scrumptious cake. It will take you no longer then 10 minutes of preparation, 8 ingredients and 30-40 minutes of baking.

I have yet to find a person who doesn't like this cake. Generally the people living in my proximity tend to be very cake-spoiled to the point of being cake snobs. However, this cake from Nigella Lawson's Kitchen has won them over. My mother even contemplates calling this her favourite cake!

It is very moist and lemony and for this summer wheather it's ideally served cold and/or with ice-cream or whipped cream. Since the cake doesn't require flour or dairy products it would be an excellent choice for people who are lactose-intolerant, gluten-free diets or vegans (granted you substitute the eggs with bananas for example)

Enough said about the cake... now the recipe (taken from Nigella Lawson's Kitchen):

200g soft margarine (or unsalted butter)
200g caster sugar
200g ground almonds
100g polenta
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (gluten-free if required)
3 eggs
zest of 2 lemons

for the syrup:
juice of 2 lemons
125g icing sugar

US:
1 cup of soft  margarine or 2 sticks of butter
1 cup caster sugar
2 cups of ground almonds
3/4 cup of polenta
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
zest of 2 lemons

for the syrup:
juice of 2 lemons
1 cup icing sugar

- line the base of a cake tin with baking parchment
- preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, gas mark 4 or 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- will take between 30-40 minutes (know your oven!)

- beat butter and sugar
- mix polenta, almonds and baking powder and add gradually to the butter-sugar mix
- add the eggs one by one
- add lemon zest
- pour into cake tin and put in the oven
- the cake is done when it shrinks from the sides of the tin, is golden brown or a cake tester comes out clean
- prick the top of the cake with an uncooked spaghetti (! don't push it until the bottom of the cake tin as you want the syrup to stay in the cake)

- put lemon juice and icing sugar in a pot and heat until it thickens
- pour on the cake (if you have a spring form you can leave the cake in it for this step, for other cake tins I would take it out before hand)
- EAT it!

Final tip: If you use peeled ground almonds the cake will look more golden, I used unpeeled ground almonds and mine is a bit on the rustic side. Tastes the same.