Vegan Gluten Free Blood Orange Polenta Cake

How to do it

Get all your ingredients together first and then you are ready to go

Start your oven - Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4

In a mug, combine the 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and 120ml almond milk

Put the ground flax seeds in a small bowl, add the three tablespoons of almond milk and mix. Leave them for a while

Tip: I had to grind the flax seeds, so buy milled flax seeds if you can to make life easier

Zest two of the oranges into a bowl. Add the flour, polenta, 100g of the caster sugar, the baking powder, bicarb and salt, and whisk

Add the rapeseed oil and mix again, then add the flax seeds and vinegary milk, and whisk to combine

Tip: The mix is quite wet so don`t add anything extra. You are on the right track.

Spoon the dough into the cake tin.

Peel the two zested oranges and, with your sharpest knife, cut off 2 to 3 very thin slices. Lay them on top of the cake mix, then bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Tip: As you can see from the photo, I forgot to peel the oranges first and they sank into the mix. Laugh.

In the meantime, make the syrup. Juice the remaining orange into a small pan (you should get around 60-80ml), add the remaining 40g caster sugar and bring to a boil.

Lower the heat to a whisper and cook for two minutes, until the mix turns sticky and syrupy, then take off the heat.

Take the cake from the oven, prick the top all over with a skewer, brush or spoon the syrup over and leave to cool before eating.

Enjoy. Deliciously messy to eat and very moreish.