On a recent Sunday evening I was craving a dessert. While we don’t make dessert a regular part of our meals in our household, this was a special evening. Aaron and I had completed the Emily K Fletcher 5K run earlier in the day and a celebration was in order. With its hills, especially the gradual one on Shepley Street, this is, in my opinion, the hardest 5K of the Greater L/A Triple Crown Road run/walk series.

Despite a rainy start, the sun came out just in time for the race. It turned out to be a beautiful, yet humid, summer day. As I ran the race, I thought about Emily Fletcher and how she would often run the route as part of her own training. Although I never knew Emily, I could sense her presence with all of the runners as we worked to cross the finish line at Edward Little High School.

My favorite part of the run was passing the cheering squad of my three kids, my mom, step-dad and their dog at the Lake Street playground. I was thankful to see Auburn firefighters there with fire hoses, spraying water. Much to the delight of my little ones, I charged right through the wet spray. Invigorated by the cold water, I went on to finish at my best time since I began running this race two years ago.

As I recovered from the run, I grabbed a cookbook given to me by my mother, “Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers.” I found a recipe for orange-almond polenta cake. It’s unique in that you make the cake batter in a blender or food processor. Polenta (the Italian word for corn) is usually a side dish or vegetarian main dish made with cornmeal and water.

This cake is made with cornmeal, but is lighter and fluffier than any polenta I have ever eaten. It is delicious and doesn’t contain milk, like many other cakes, so I can serve it to my youngest child who has a dairy sensitivity. Our family of five ate the entire cake that night.

Orange-almond polenta cake

Ingredients:

1/3 cup cornmeal

2/3 cup flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour to make it a bit healthier and it was still delicious.)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups almonds (If you use sliced almonds, 1 cup will be enough.)

3/4 cup sugar

1 orange (If you don’t have a fresh orange, use 1/3 cup prepared orange juice and no orange peel.)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1/3 cup water

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil and flour a 9-inch cake pan. Sift cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In a blender or food processor, process the almonds and sugar until the almonds are finely ground. Add to the flour mixture.

Zest the orange peel and juice the orange into the blender. Add oil, eggs and 1/3 cup of water; and blend. Stop the blender, add dry ingredients and then continue until well blended. Pour into cake pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. (The recipe calls for 45 minutes, but the bottom was slightly burned when I pulled it out, so I think it could bake for less time.) Cool in the pan, on a rack, for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. When completely cool, dust with confectioners’ sugar. Serve with fruit if desired.

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