Author Notes
This cake is a cross between cornbread and pound cake and is perfect for dessert. Lemon thyme or lavender would work beautifully in place of sage. —Mary Catherine Tee
Test Kitchen Notes
This cake had me at Cornmeal! I love the addition of cornmeal in cakes and in pizza dough. It adds lovely depth to the flavor and gives this cake a nice crumb. Mary Tee Malmberg has created a beautifully moist cake with the addition of olive oil and the “custard” topping. While the heavy cream and honey simmers, the combination creates a beautiful chestnut color and flavor which adds another level of flavor to the cake. An added bonus to this cake is it’s simplicity.
[Editors' note: We'd recommend upping the amount of fresh herb used to make the cream topping, and we think this cake would also be great using lavender as the primary herb.] —at yvonne's table
Continue After Advertisement
Ingredients
- For the custard:
-
1 cup
heavy cream
-
1 bunch
sage
-
2 tablespoons
honey
-
Zest from 1 lemon
- For the cake:
-
1 cup
all-purpose flour
-
1/2 cup
whole wheat flour
-
3/4 cup
fine yellow cornmeal
-
1 teaspoon
baking powder
-
1/2 teaspoon
baking soda
-
1 teaspoon
salt
-
1/4 teaspoon
freshly grated nutmeg
-
1/8 cup
fresh herbs, finely chopped (I used sage)
-
2
eggs
-
1 cup
honey
-
3/4 cup
buttermilk (or regular milk mixed with 1 teaspoon lemon juice and allowed to sit for 5 to 10 minutes)
-
1/2 cup
olive oil
-
Honey and butter, for serving
Directions
-
Preheat oven to 350° F.
-
In a small saucepan, combine the custard ingredients. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so the cream does not burn. Cover, turn off heat, and let cool until you're ready to use it.
-
In a bowl, combine flours, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and fresh herbs. Whisk together until well-combined.
-
In a stand mixer or by hand, beat eggs and honey together until a bit of foam forms on top. I did this with my stand mixer on level 6 for about 4 minutes.
-
Once mixed, add buttermilk and olive oil.
-
Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients and mix until well combined.
-
Pour the batter into a springform pan lined with parchment paper.
-
Now, discard the herb sprig from the cream mixture. Pour the cream mixture in the middle of the batter. Don't worry if it just sits at the top -- it will sink as it's cooking.
-
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool the cake cool completely before serving with honey and butter.
I’m an old soul. My favorite Saturday morning activity is watching birds on the feeder while drinking strong, black coffee out of my favorite hand-thrown mug. My favorite place to kill time is in antique stores. The less organized the better. I like full-bodied red wines and bitter IPAs. I live for feeling the warmth of sunshine and hearing the stillness of freshly fallen snow. I can thank my stint in Alaska for that. I have salt water in my veins, having grown up in Eastern NC, and (shhh…don’t tell any of my Mainer friends this about me) I prefer blue crab over lobster.
See what other Food52ers are saying.