A polenta cake from pastry chef Hannah Buoye, of A16 Rockridge in Oakland, was the model for this dense, moist dessert. As the sliced lemons bake under the cake and absorb butter and brown sugar, they take on a marmalade-like quality. Be sure the cake is fully baked before you remove it from the oven (see step 6), or it may sink.
This is a wonderful recipe. Yummy, grown up marmalade topping with the graininess of polenta. Absolutely perfect for brunch or a special treat with a bowl of homemade whip cream on the side. Meyers have such a short season and it's lovely to feature while they're with us. Have made perhaps three times now and always perfect. HOWEVER, strongly caution placing your pan on a foil covered tray. First time I ever made I nearly ruined my oven as the cooking spray and a bit of the melted topping leaked through the springform, coating the lower oven. (Perhaps others have had better luck using a different kind of cake pan.) The self cleaning feature did not remove and had to use a commercial oven-cleaning product to get my oven clean again!
I made the recipe exactly as wriiten. The cake was pretty and tasted good but was dissapointingly dry. However , the next day I made a lemon syrup ( boiled fresh lemon juice with sugar), poked a bunch of holes in the bottom ( non lemon side) of the leftover cake and poured on the syrup, Voila! Problem fixed, cake was delidious, moist and super-lemony!
"Be sure the cake is fully baked before you remove it from the oven (see step 6), or it may sink." At 50 minutes the middle was still jiggly. I baked it another 15 minutes (checking in 5 minute increments) and though it sprung back when lightly touched, it's sitting on the cooling rack...sinking.
I won't cut into until tomorrow evening so I hope the flavor and presentation make the effort and the use of 4 Meyer lemons (precious and expensive here on the East coast!) are worth it. I'll come back to correct star rating tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
I live in Colorado too (Denver area) and found a bag of Meyer lemons this month, January 2017, in King Soopers produce section. I imagine they are a time limited item.
I made this for my monthly potluck. The tart lemon topping with the little crunch of the cornmeal is great, and the cornmeal cake is sturdy enough to stand up to the slightly gooey lemony topping. The sides are quite crunchy too!
I think this wants some kind of not-too-sweet dollop of something cream-based -- like barely sweetened whipped cream. I will definitely make this again.
We loved this cake, but live in Colorado and don't have access to many Meyer lemons. What can I use to substitute?
This was actually my very first cake, and I'm shocked at how well it came out, so it must be easy to get right. There really is an ombre effect! And it tastes great (like cornbread with a sweet lemony topping).
