In search of the perfect cake

Several weeks ago, some friends and were at the literary and philosophy festival 'HowTheLightGetsIn' held in Hay on Wye.  Hanging out in literary and philosophy festivals is what I do now that I am a proper adult, I'll have you know.

While we were there, suffering from an almighty hangover (adult - really) I had some of the best cake in the world ever.  Seriously, this was the best cake I have ever put in my mouth ever.  I was accosting strangers and demanding that they taste it, it was that good. It was moist and sweet, yet not too sweet and tart and tangy and moist.  I know I said moist twice, which from someone who really doesn't like the word moist is a lot, but there is no other way to describe it.

Obviously I wanted to try and recreate this as soon as possible.  So I read some recipes and then tried this one.

Lemon polenta cake

• 6oz/175g unsalted butter, softened
• 8oz/225g caster sugar
• 7oz/200g ground almonds
• 3 large eggs
• Zest of 4 whole lemons and juice of 1
• 4oz/115g polenta
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt

• Preheat the oven to 325F/160C/gas mark 3. Line an 8” (20cm) tin with baking parchment.

• Put all the ingredients in a food processor and whizz to a smooth batter.

• Spoon into the lined tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out with no uncooked batter on it. Cool in the tin. 

And you know what, it was ok.  I think if I hadn't had the first, perfect version then I would have been quite content with it.  But it wasn't as good as it should have been.  It didn't sing the way that festival cake did.  I didn't even bother to take a picture of the cake for you.

There's nothing for it, I am going to have to try again.

And while I'm trying, if you want some evidence of us being literary and adult at HowTheLightGetsIn, before the cake changed my life, you can hear us participating in this debate which was recorded that morning on the future of love, which will be aired on 3rd July on radio 3.