Worth the wait

As has been previously documented here, I am not a baker. While cooking generally calms me and excites me, baking usually stresses me out! Of course, there are occasions where I come across a recipe that so piques my interest that I throw caution to the wind and bake anyway!

This is one such recipe.

I assumed that making this cake would be the hard part - but as it turns out, the toughest task was getting my **** (censored for the kiddos) together to actually make it!

My first mistake was one I make too often - I was lazy in reading the ingredient list and didn't get enough almonds.

A week later when I got the time and courage up to give it another go, I realized that I had used up my fresh lemons during the week.

Then, my poor food processor got put onto injured reserve.

Thankfully for all of us, my handy husband was able to salvage the food processor and I finally had everything together to make the recipe. About a month or more after I had originally tried. Turns out it wasn't that difficult to put together and it was sooooo worth the wait!

Olive Oil and Grape Cake (adapted from Martha Stewart, November 2010)

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 to 3/4 cup almonds
1/4 quick cooking polenta
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon (approximately 2 tsp)
1/3 cup whole milk
2 cups red seedless grapes

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. This cake calls for an 8" x 8" square baking pan. To prep the pan, brush with olive oil and dust lightly with flour.

While you are assembling other ingredients, toast the almonds on a baking sheet for around 5 minutes. When they start to smell really almond-y they're ready to come out!


And because of the aforementioned food processor issue, I decided to give my almonds a head start with a rough chop...


*Cross your fingers*


Isn't my husband the best? Look at these beautiful finely ground toasted almonds!


Mix 1/2 cup of ground almonds with the polenta, flour, baking powder and salt.


In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, eggs and zest.


Beat on high until the mixture becomes pale in color and somewhat fluffy. If you don't have a stand mixer, a hand mixer would be perfectly fine!


Now, reduce the speed to low and slowly stream in the olive oil.


Now alternate small portions of the flour mixture and milk, keeping the mixer on low.


Ultimately you want to do 4 additions of flour mixture and 3 additions of milk, starting and ending with the flour.


Pour the cake mixture into your pan and spread half of the grapes across the top.


Bake for 15 minutes and it will look like this.


Take the partially baked cake out of the oven, and spread the rest of the grapes over the top.


Bake for an additional 25 to 27 minutes. The cake should be golden brown and allow a toothpick to come out cleanly. After allowing it to cool for 15 or 20 minutes, flip it out of the pan onto a plate.


I cut mine into squares but after trying a bite, I would have gladly taken this entire cake as my serving!