Nutty Little Zinger Polenta and Prune Cake

A nutty little zinger of a Polenta and Prune Cake that’s inspired by Romanian produce and by their coffee cakes.

I apologise unreservedly for the lateness of this post. This recipe is so late being added to the site because I first tried making a vegetarian roasted onion, prune and red wine gravy. Which I was going to add to a dish of polenta fries and roast veg.

Problem was it didn’t work. The roast onion was lovely by itself. And red wine and prunes were made to go together. But with a roasted onion blended in … No. Just no. Well, it was actually okay. But then there was this weird aftertaste … like chutney. I like chutney. But … no. No.

The polenta fries were amazing. I’m going to make them again definitely. So quick too.

Mamaliga (polenta) is a popular and traditional Romanian dish. So that’s why I wanted to have some polenta as part of the dish.

And I wanted to use plums because Romania is the largest producer of plums in the EU. Which obviously made me want to make something with plums.

So where did this cake idea come from?

I did think of making a polenta and plum cake. I was thinking of adapting a Sabrina Ghayour’s recipe for a peach, lime, pistachio and polenta cake, substituting plums for the peaches, some orange and lemon for the lime, almonds for the pistachios, using mascarpone instead of yoghurt and using stem ginger syrup instead of honey. And maybe adding some sherry. And then I thought that’s a lot of substitutions. Which means a lot of food wasted if my changes don’t work out.

So after looking through many lovely Romanian recipes, that were not gluten-free, I went back to the the idea of polenta fries and decided to make some sort of prune gravy.

And then that went badly.

I was so on top of things until that point… I’d actually written up all the remaining recipes. Just had to cook them. And obviously they were all going to work out great. Great.

Oh wait, no. One of the recipes I had made already – so that was scheduled to post. And I totally forgot about that.

But hey, I’d definitely get the Romanian and Slovakian recipes done and posted before. I’d just make a duck in plum sauce with those yummy polenta fries for the Romanian recipe. Simple, right?

You’d think so…

So after wasting a fair amount of food, I went back to the idea that I had dropped – out of fear of wasting food.

Rather than coming up with a recipe myself, I decided to find some cake recipes online that used polenta and prunes, and use that. I found two. Here’s one, and the second one. So I mashed them together.

Is it good? I don’t know yet. It’s baking right now. It smells gorgeous though!

I’ll let you know if it’s good in the photos below.

Things to see & do in Romania

I haven’t been to Romania. I’d love to go. There’s pretty castles, beautiful scenery and a number of unusual things to see.

• Here’s a great list of 20 different places to go in Romania – very diverse list.
• This is a great little travel piece on Romania – written this summer – by a family travel blogger.
• 15 things you need to know before you go to Romania. I read this list. It’s very useful. But #11 is completely unnecessary. It says Drink Driving is a No-No. Driving while under the influence, of any intoxicant, is not allowed anywhere. And if you need to be told this you shouldn’t be driving.

What is Romania like for coeliacs and the gluten-intolerant?

I found this great but short little post about what dishes are naturally both wheat-free and gluten-free in Romania. And here’s another quick guide to eating gluten-free in Bucharest.