Cornmeal Pound Cake

Blazing hot temperatures have blanketed the Pacific Northwest caused by a heat dome that occurs only once in a thousand years. Public transit has been halted because of melting power cables and asphalt is buckling from the unprecedented extreme heat. So I’m guessing everyone feels like firing up the oven and baking a cake, correct? You’ve come to the right place. A thick slice of this moist, lemony cornmeal pound cake, served with a tall glass of sweet, chilled iced tea is the perfect snack to share with friends while trying to stay cool.

Cornmeal Pound Cake

I love the taste of cornmeal in muffins, cakes and breads and I believe that my predilection for this slightly sweet and mildly nutty flour is genetically imprinted. My father grew up in a small town in a mountainous area of pre-war Romania (and sometimes Hungary) known as Marmarosh. There, the specialité du jour enjoyed six days a week and sometimes twice daily, was cornmeal mush, also known as mamaliga. You’d think my father would have eaten enough of this polenta-like dish to last a lifetime and yet, when friends and family dropped by, he stood happily by the stove, stirring a big pot of mamaliga. Generous helpings of this thick, golden cornmeal pudding were ladled out into large shallow bowls and topped with bryndza cheese, a salty sheep’s milk cheese, similar to feta. Inevitably the pot was quickly scraped clean. Dad would not be at all surprised to learn that this humble dish is now served in the finest restaurants.

No need to click, we’re not making mamaliga today (or probably ever). Loaf cakes are easy to make and even easier to eat. This recipe for cornmeal pound cake by preeminent New York Times food columnist and cookbook author Melissa Clark, is easily adaptable and can be mixed together in 10 minutes using nothing fancier than a wooden spoon and mixing bowl. Citrus-scented and speckled with the slight crunch of cornmeal, leftover slices of cake can be toasted for breakfast, apparently. I wouldn’t really know because we never have leftover cake.

Assemble your ingredients and grease a 8 1/2 inch loaf pan. You can also spray the pan with baking spray and line it with parchment paper. In a large bowl, add the sugar and grate the zest from a large lemon. Smoosh the sugar and lemon rind together with your hands, rubbing the rind into the sugar so that its aromatic oils are released. This technique infuses the sugar with the flavor of lemon. 

Add the oil, eggs, sour cream or non-dairy substitute (I used WayFare vegan sour cream) and vanilla.

Add the salt, baking soda, baking powder and cornmeal. Whisk into the liquid mixture. Add the flour and whisk again until smooth. Scrape the cake batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 50-60 minutes. Test if the cake is cooked through by inserting a thin wooden skewer in the middle. It should come out dry with just a few crumbs clinging to it. It took 60 minutes to cook this cake each time that I made it.

Print Recipe

Cornmeal Pound Cake

Cookies, Cakes, Pies and Desserts

By Melissa Clark, New York Times – Serves: 8

Prep Time: 10 minutes – Cooking Time: 50-60 minutes – Total Time: 60-70 minutes

Citrus-scented, moist pound cake speckled with the slight crunch of cornmeal

Ingredients

• Cake
• 1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar
• rind of 1 lemon, grated with a microplane grater
• ½ cup/120 milliliters vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup/120 milliliters plain yogurt, or buttermilk, or sour cream, or 1/2 cup whole milk mixed with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, or non-dairy sour cream substitute (I used WayFare vegan sour cream)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup/60 grams cornmeal
• 1 ¼ cup/160 grams all-purpose flour

Instructions

1

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray a 8 1/2 inch loaf pan with baking spray and line it with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with baking spray.

2

In a large bowl, add the sugar and grate the zest from a large lemon. Smoosh the sugar and lemon rind together with your hands, rubbing the rind into the sugar so that its aromatic oils are released.

3

Add the oil, eggs, sour cream or non-dairy substitute (I used WayFare vegan sour cream) and vanilla.

4

Add the salt, baking soda, baking powder and cornmeal. Whisk into the liquid mixture. Add the flour and whisk again until smooth. Scrape the cake batter into the prepared loaf pan.

5

Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes on the middle rack of the oven until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes back with only a few crumbs clinging to it. Allow the cake to cool completely before slicing.

Notes

This cake freezes beautifully.