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Almond Cornmeal Cake with Sour Cherry Sauce

Ingredients

  • 1/2 c. cornmeal
  • 1/2 c. flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 c. 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 c. almonds ground
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 3/4 c. sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp. almond extract
  • 1/4 c. sour cream
  • Mascarpone Goat Cheese Topping recipe follows
  • Sour Cherry Sauce recipe follows

Mascarpone Goat Cheese Topping

  • 4 oz. Mascarpone cheese
  • 2 oz. goat cheese
  • 1 tsp. honey
  • 1 Tbsp. sugar

Sour Cherry Sauce

  • 1 can pitted sour cherries
  • 1/3 c. sugar
  • 1 tsp. almond extract
  • 2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare your cake pan by cutting wax paper to fit a 8-9″ cake pan. Grease the pan with a little shortening, put the wax paper in the pan and then grease and flour the pan shaking out all excess flour. Set aside. (I set the pan on the wax paper and using scissors or a knife draw the bottom and then use that as a guide to cut out a circle.)
  2. Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
  3. Finely grind the almonds with 1/4 cup of the sugar. Set aside. Beat the butter with the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar in large bowl using an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time until well blended. Add in the almond extract. Fold in the almonds and the cornmeal/flour mixture, using a gentle folding motion until you have all the dried ingredients folded into the creamed mixture.
  4. Pour into your prepared pan. Bake for about 25-30 minutes and the cake has pulled away from the sides a little and is nice and golden. Test for doneness using cake tester or toothpick. Turn out on rack to cool and when cooled, peel the wax paper off the cake. Cut in wedges. To plate, put some of the sour cherry sauce on the plate, put the cake in the center. Top with a dollop of the mascarpone cheese mixture and sprinkle with a few candied almonds.

  5. For Mascarpone topping: Mix all together until smooth. You can add more goat cheese if you want a little more pronounced flavor of the goat cheese.

  6. For Sour Cherry Sauce: Drain the cherries. Put the juice, cornstarch and sugar in a small saucepan and cook until thickened. Add in the cherries and almond extract. I added a drop or two of red food coloring also to give it a nice red color.

  7. Enjoy!