Lemon Thyme Cornmeal Cake | Cooking With Michele®

April 15, 2009 | Desserts

Time to dust off those heavy winter roasts and stews and move into some lighter fare for spring – despite the forecast for more snow this week! Am I the only one who gets depressed when it snows? I saw Giada DiLaurentis make this cake on the Food Network (that’s what I watch when I exercise) and after trying it on both kids and adults, I’m hooked.It’s all about the herbs in this cake – start with with some fresh thyme and mince it up finely. It’s also all about the lemon zest, which I forgot to photograph, but you’ll need a Microplane grater. (See the Amazon link on the left? I’m starting to post some of my favorite cooking tools there and you can order them directly from Amazon.com.)

Here are the remainder of the ingredients – I suppose you could try this with a light sour cream, but the cake is simple enough already and I’m afraid that might make it taste dry.

There are a boatload of eggs in the recipe – both whole eggs…

…and then additional yolks. (Does anyone who is camera savvy know what it is about this picture of yolks that makes it a whopping 7 MB file???)

I made these cakes for a cooking dinner party last week – forgot to take a photo of the final product, but the plates came back clean!

Lemon Thyme Cornmeal Cake
Serves 6-8

1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 lemon, zested
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
2 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8-inch round cake pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, cake flour, minced thyme, baking powder, and salt. Using a mixer, beat the butter and vanilla together, then add the powdered sugar with mixer on low. Once the sugar is incorporated increase the speed to high and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolks and eggs, 1 at a time. Reduce the speed to medium and add the sour cream. On low speed add the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake in the lower third of the oven until the cake is golden and pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 35 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool. Transfer the cake from the pan to a serving plate and dust with powdered sugar before serving. (Giada uses powdered sugar, but I think this would be delicious with some sweetened mascarpone cheese on top.)