A few years ago I made a roasted polenta pear cake. It was really tasty but I forgot about it and never made it again. While reading this month's Bon Appetit, I saw a recipe for an upside blood orange polenta cake which reminded me that long forgotten pear cake. And of course, once I saw the Food52 theme, I immediately began to play with the idea of incorporating those flavors into a polenta cake. My husband immediately turned up his nose when I mentioned cake and feta in the same breath but I solidered on. The first try at an upside down carmelized blood orange cake wasn't quite a success. The pith of the orange was too bitter and thick as evidenced by my husband's plate - all the cake was gone but all the orange slices had been picked off the top and placed to the side. I decided to try again, tweaking the cake ingredients and adding a glaze. Success - all the plates were scraped clean! This is a perfect cake for breakfast or for an afternoon or bedtime snack with a cup of tea. —melissav
First and foremost, the Blood Orange Tea Cake was absolutely delicious. It was really moist, toothsome from the cornmeal and still light enough to be somewhat like a sponge cake. The feta in the cake added richness without overwhelming it with cheese flavor or texture. We couldn’t detect actual bits of feta in the cake. The glaze, which uses fresh blood orange and mint, mixed with molecules of feta, gave it a nice freshness and cut through the sugar. The cake isn’t overly sweet, despite copious amounts of sugar in the recipe. Normally when I bake, I cut the sugar in half, but I followed the recipe and it was fine. The recipe made more glaze than I could use -- I had very juicy oranges. At first, I was a bit confused by the flipping directions, but I figured it out. I’m not a baker by nature, but this turned out great. - aargersi —The Editors
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