Corn Cake

Torta di Mais          

from The Vegeterranean, Malu Simões & Alberto Musacchio, Simon & Schuster, 2008.

Encouraged by the success of my palmiers I jumped at this recipe for what, I suppose, translates as a corn cake. Then I read that it was often given to recent mothers to assist them to regain their strength. I was not sure that it was something that I really needed but the photograph looked as though it could be eminently edible. And, so far, recipes from this book had proved good ones.

There was a lot of beating. The first came with whisking ingredients in a saucepan over heat for something like 15 minutes. This had to be cooled so there was time to rest the beating arm. Then egg yolks had to be beaten into the mixture, and beaten well to incorporate air. Finally the egg whites needed to be beaten until stiff and then folded in. From then on it was cooking in the oven.

The result was a very pleasant aniseed flavoured slice. Because of the cornmeal it had a slightly grainy texture that made for enjoyable chewing.

Worth trying—and worth repeating.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔