Gluten-Free Cherry and Almond Polenta Cake

One of life's great pleasures - tea and cake in the afternoon.  This is the first slice from a cherry and almond polenta cake that I made today. 

A couple of months ago I had a slice of lemon polenta cake in a café and loved it, so I looked at recipes online.  I particularly wanted to find a cake that I could make for the next time my daughter in law visits, because she is wheat-intolerant, but most of the recipes either had wheat flour in them, or baking powder.  Otherwise the recipes called for creaming margarine and sugar, which is a process I am not particularly keen on.  In the end I decided to live dangerously and invent a recipe, and tried it out a little while ago.  I made one large round cake in a 9 inch tin, and it looked enormous, but my husband and I had no trouble working through it over a few days.

This time I used the same quantities and made two cakes in loaf tins.  Our daughter is at home at the moment, and she doesn't like cherries in cakes, so I made one with cherries and one without.

There is no weighing involved in this recipe.  I use a small glass which holds a quarter of a pint as a measure - the same glass that I use for the muffins recipe.

If you measure out the ingredients in the order that I show in the list and pictures below you won't need to wash the glass out until you have finished.

You will need three separate bowls - a large one for the main mixture, one for dry ingredients, and another for the whipping the egg whites.

Ingredients

1 measure polenta

2 measures ground almonds

2 measures granulated sugar

1 measure sunflower oil

1 measure full fat plain yoghurt (Greek yoghurt is best)

5 eggs

cherries

whole blanched almonds

Mix the polenta and ground almonds in a separate bowl.

Use as many cherries as you like, and cut them into quarters on a plate.  These are Italian sour cherries in syrup, which came in a jar, so I needed to make sure that I had drained the syrup off them.

Then I coated them with about a teaspoonful of the polenta and ground almond mixture, so that they aren't too slippery and end up slipping down to the bottom of the cake.

The next job is separating the eggs.  The yolks go into the large mixing bowl (the fifth yolk is hiding) with the sugar, sunflower oil and yoghurt.  The yoghurt had started separating in the pot, so I drained off the liquid, otherwise the mixture might have ended up a little too runny.

Whisk all the ingredients in the large bowl until you have a nice smooth mixture.

Then, using a knife, fold in the polenta and ground almonds.

Next, beat the eggs whites until they are stiff...

... and gently fold the egg whites into the mixture, a dollop at a time...

... until the mixture looks like this.  Tiny lumps of the aerated egg whites will still be visible.

The mixture is now ready to be spooned into the cake tins.  I always use a paper lining. 

For the cherry cake, I put in a layer of mixture, laid half of the cherries on top, then covered them with mixture and put in the rest of the cherries, and covered them too.

Both cakes are then decorated with blanched almonds on top, and put into a pre-heated oven.

They need a low oven.  I have a fan oven, which is very good at burning cakes.  I started these cakes off at 120°C, but after 20 minutes they had too much of a suntan, so I turned the oven down to 100°C.  After 45 minutes they were ready - a skewer came out clean.

Here is the first slice from the cherry cake - a bit crumbly because I should have let it cool down a little longer, but we had made a pot of tea and were impatient to try it out.

It's delicious.  Also, because this cake is made with sunflower oil instead of margarine, it doesn't have a tendency to dry out, and keeps better if it isn't all eaten at once. 

A Picture for Sunday - Catkins

This is another of the pictures I took last Sunday.  The snow had all disappeared by Monday evening, and in this part of the country I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see snow again for three or four years.

Catkins and snow are a rare combination.  I loved the way they were blowing in the wind.

A Box for Knitting Needles

Never one to resist a pretty box, I had to bring this one home with me when I saw it in a charity shop a couple of weeks ago.  The brightly painted peasant girl looks so carefree, straight out of a soviet era myth. 

I would tell you all about it, but I can't read Cyrillic.  Can anybody help, please?  Pectopah is my limit.  My mother in law used to write to her sister in Cyrillic script, proper joined up writing, but she is no longer with us.

The flowers on the side are especially pretty, because with the decoration on the lid, they needn't have bothered with the sides, but they did.  It is a shame that the camera angle has played havoc with the right angles.

The box measures a little under 8 inches by 5 inches, and is perfect for keeping my circular knitting needles in, with stitch holders and nappy pins and a needle gauge.  I shall never get used to the metric needle sizes, so the gauge is very handy because it shows the old sizes too.  Why did a perfectly straightforward system have to be done away with, so a size 9 became two and three quarter millimetres?  Thus speaks an old gal who learnt to knit over fifty years ago.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 178 - Reviving A Project

Easter is fast approaching and it will be time to concentrate on the family.  I am feeling fairly virtuous about the whole thing, having actually done some spring cleaning so the house looks reasonably presentable.  The days are longer, winter is probably over, and I am looking forward to spending some time digging to get my allotment ready for this year's vegetables. 

As for sewing, I am going to concentrate on quick projects, and while sorting out my sewing corner I came across these pieces I had set aside to make tea cosies.  So that means the two final cosies in these fabrics, and just enough, but not too much to keep me going over the Easter holidays.

Next week might be a bit busy, so there will be no linky, so this weekend will be the last until after Easter.

Here goes for Week 178.

The project in Week 177 that caught my eye was Yanicka's beautiful family tree quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and have a closer look.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

A Picture For Sunday - Snow-Capped Bulrushes

Many a time I have stopped to look at this view, but I have never seen it as beautiful as it was this afternoon, with the snow on the bulrushes and the water an extraordinary shade of blue.  

The snow is making another quick appearance.  Underneath the ground is its usual muddy self; it was the wind chill factor that was preventing the snow from thawing.  I expect it shall all have vanished by tomorrow evening.

Squared Twiddle Blanket With Buttons

Every Twiddle blanket I make is different from the last, and this time I played around with shades of pink, purple, beige and grey.  Also I wanted to experiment with a tartan effect stitch, as I would like to make myself a jacket with a similar stitch.  Next autumn, perhaps. 

Just using buttons kept the decoration simple, and each of the ten buttons is different.  I particularly liked this salmon pink button with streaks.

This blue button with laced ribbon was novel.

This red button is bold enough to stand out near the band of bright pinkish red...

... and this calm blue holds it own against a rather sludgy combination of colours.

I took this blanket to the monthly meeting of the church knitting group that I joined last year, and it should soon find its way to a dementia patient at a local hospital.

Now that spring is coming (supposedly) and I have organised my sewing corner, I am looking forward to more sewing and a little less knitting.  I am so glad I joined the knitting group, as it got me knitting again after a couple of decades off.  Knitting is definitely like riding a bike.  No matter how long since you last had a go, you don't forget how to do it.

Linking up with Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 177 - Sewing Room Blitz

Looking good so far, but still a way to go.  The big spring clean has now shifted from the kitchen, visible and positively gleaming through the window on the left, to the sewing corner.  Until Tuesday it still looked like this, with the custom built fold-away table piled high with fabric and general clutter, and the counter beyond it had degenerated into a no-go zone.  Now I am extremely proud of the orderly line of sewing boxes, because I know exactly what is in them and that I shouldn't need to buy thread for a while.  

The Serata treadle is now unearthed from under a great heap of flotsam that would have been far too embarrassing to even photograph, so not only do I now know how much thread I have, but I can actually see the floor.

So, no sewing done this week, but the way is clear to get going again fairly soon.

Here goes, a little later than usual, for Week 177.

Many thanks to Angie, who was the only person to link up last week, showing her latest baby quilt in the making.  She is a true Trojan, and just keeps on going making little quilts for charity.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and have a closer look.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 176 - Coffee Pot Cosy

Coffee isn't my cup of tea at all, so it is no surprise that making a coffee pot cosy would never have occurred to me had I not seen one when making a quick social call last week.  I realised I had all the bits and pieces at home ready for me to throw together.  

This is from the same practice pieces that I used for the camera case that I made before Christmas, but this time I have put the printed fabric on the outside.  I love the way there is a big difference in the colours, depending on which side of the coffee pot you look at - the rusty red and brown predominate on this side...

...whereas on the other side you see more of the dark blue background.

The creamy coloured buttons stood out better against the dark blue, so deciding which side to put them was easy.

The rectangle is cut to the right size to cover all the exposed glass of the coffee pot, and the  button loops pass under the handle.  Realising the kittens mug made a perfect match was a bit of added fun when it came to taking the photos.  How cute can you get?

Here it is laid out, in all its glorious simplicity.

The button loops are secured under the binding, and this glimpse of the back shows the pieced back, an offcut from a quilt backing, which is best kept hidden.

I pulled out two bits of left over binding, and this batik was the one that was long enough to go all the way round.  It wasn't until I was sewing it on that I saw  how well it went with the print, with the little brown dots echoing those in the flowers. 

And it wasn't until I enlarged the photo that I saw how bad the tension was in the quilting.  Couldn't care less.  It is a practice piece from my relatively early days of free motion quilting, and it might even have been the fault of the rogue bobbin before it started seriously playing up.

This was a super-quick project, and I am ridiculously chuffed with the end result.  It's not going to convert me to coffee, though, kittens or no kittens. 

Here goes for Week 176.

The project that caught my eye in week 175 was Lynette's Night Watch quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and have a closer look.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

Linking up with Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

A Picture for Sunday - Snowdrifts

One of the most unexpected sights I have ever seen.  This is a lane I often walk down, and I would never have imagined it being completely blocked by snowdrifts.  Here is the same lane in May, but when I took this photo on Friday the weather was wild. 

I piled on eight (yes, really) layers of clothing and went out for a long walk.  I took plenty of photos so I could send them to my son, who is in Ireland and has had similar weather, and my daughter, who is in Portugal and has complained that they have been having biblical rain.  Then I found I couldn't send them the mini documentary video by email, so I stuck it on YouTube.  Just make sure you wrap up warm before you watch it. 

A Quick Project

Scraps of binding, a practice piece from when I was first learning free motion quilting, and a conveniently cylindrical coffee pot all add up to a very quick project for a dull afternoon.

While on a visit this week I spotted a coffee pot just like this one with its own wrap-around cosy, and knew I just had to make one, especially as I had all the components already prepared and stashed away waiting for the right project.  We have two of these coffee pots, a small one and a large one.  I am not a coffee drinker, but my husband uses the smaller pot every day to make himself a solo cup.  I said I was going to make a cosy, and the conversation went something like this:-

"What for?"

"To keep your coffee hot."

"But I want it to cool down."

"I want to make one."

"Why?"

"To use up the bits and pieces."

"It's not worth the effort."

"Yes it is."

Etc. etc. etc.  I suppose I should have realised he wouldn't totally see the point, because I am the one who insists on hot tea, scalding soup, hot dinner plates, and can finish a meal while he is still waiting for his to cool down.  Anyway, we came to an agreement.  I shall make one for the larger pot so we can keep coffee warm when we have visitors.

I am looking forward to a super quick finish!

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 175 - Elephants with Turquoise

Usually I steer clear of dark colours when making cradle quilts, but this time I thought I could get away with it.  The dark shades all go so well with the colours of the elephants in the centre that I was dying to use them, and the turquoise with beige spots lifts the whole colour scheme.

The variegated thread that I used for the quilting has shades of purple, yellow, dark blues, greens and maroon - the perfect combination for this quilt.

For the backing I used the blue and grey butterflies print, one of my all-time favourite fabrics.

I managed to do all the quilting and binding on Monday as I had a trip away planned this week.  On Tuesday I travelled to Berkshire to stay with a friend, on Wednesday we had the day out in Oxford, and today I had a very eventful trip back on the train travelling through a blizzard.  Winter has finally arrived, and with a vengeance.  The blizzard seems set to last all night.  

Here goes for Week 175.

The project that caught my eye in week 174 was Angie's baby quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and have a closer look.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Michelle's Romantic Tangle for Let's Make Baby Quilts
and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.