I absolutely love this cake, its ridiculously simple to make and really packs a lemon punch, stays moist for days and never fails.

Tip – This can be made gluten free by either omitting the baking powder (and whisking exuberantly at the last step) or using a gluten free variety.

Extra tip – I sprinkled crystallised violet petal pieces atop my cake for colour, crunch and flavour. Available at http://www.souschef.co.uk.

1. Heat your oven to 180ºC and line the base of a 23cm loose-bottomed cake tin, lightly greasing the sides.
2. Beat together 200g caster sugar with 200g softened unsalted butter until light and pale. In a separate bowl, mix together 100g ground almonds, 100g ground hazelnuts, 100g fine polenta and 1.5 tsp baking powder.
3. Beat in a third of this to the butter mixture then alternate with 3 eggs until well blended. Finally mix through the zest of 2 lemons, scrape into your cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes. When cooked, it may seem slightly wobbly in centre but if a cake tester comes out clean and the edges have started to shrink away from the sides it should be cooked.
4. Make your syrup by boiling the juice of 3 small (or 2 large) lemons with 125g of icing sugar until the sugar dissolves in a small pan. Prick the surface (a toothpick works well or use something even finer if you have something) of your cake and pour over. You may not be able to use all the liquid, stop if its not all sinking in. When cooled, remove cake from tin.
5. Serve sprinkled with something sweet, I have used edible petals and sugared lemon zest in the past but this is not necessary if you don’t have anything, it’s good enough naked!