Gluten and Dairy Free Cumquat and Rosemary Cake

We had a family get together on Saturday to farewell one of our sons and his girlfriend, they are off to Peru to open a restaurant and continue their love of food in the land of the Incas. I busied myself making some dishes to go with the BBQ, Chicken marinated in toasted cumin seed, parsley, garlic, paprika and olive oil, hummus with thyme infused pita crisps, chickpea and kale with bread picada, and a huge salad of herbs from the garden. Our son made a delicious salad of rainbow chard, with fennel seed, red onion, sultanas, parsley, goat feta and toasted pine nuts, Yum. But what will we have for dessert???

We have a cumquat tree that is loaded with bright orange tangy fruits begging to be turned into something sticky and sweet. The variety we have growing in our garden is Ngami, the fruits are oblong, the skin bright orange when ripe and the tree crops heavily, unlike some varieties of cumquats you can eat them straight from the tree, the oils in the skin are quite sweet, the flesh inside is quite tart, so the whole fruit skin included is eaten.

I decided on cumquat and rosemary cake, based on a gluten free orange and polenta cake recipe. It is a nice dense moist cake with plenty of eggs (fresh from our chooks), polenta, almond meal, sugar and instead of the oranges I used cumquats and of course I just had to add a herb..

Rosemary, it is one of my favourite herbs and it partners really well with citrus, its flavour of pine, camphor and citrus adds freshness to this cake.

Gluten and Dairy Free Cumquat & Rosemary Cake

Ingredients
500g cumquats

6 sml eggs

125g polenta

125g almond meal

225g caster sugar

1 tbsp chopped rosemary

Method
• Put cumquats in a large saucepan cover with water, bring to the boil, then simmer for around 45min or until the cumquats are soft.

• Drain and cool, cut in half around the middle and remove the seeds

• Preheat the oven to 160°C

• Put the cumquats in a food processor and process till the cumquats have broken down almost completely, (a few bits of skin adds to the texture of the cake). Add eggs and process till mixed through and creamy looking.

• Fold in polenta, almonds, sugar and rosemary.

• Pour into greased and lined spring form cake tin.

• Cook for 60 min or until cake holds firm when touched in the middle.

Serve cake with cumquat sauce and some whipped cream.

Cumquat Sauce infused with Rosemary

Ingredients

20-24 cumquats pricked once with a skewer

2 cups caster sugar

1 cup water

1 tbsp chopped rosemary

1/3 cup orange liqueur

Method
• Place the sugar and water into a saucepan, on moderate heat.

• Once the sugar has dissolved add the cumquats and rosemary.

• Bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer gently for 30min.

• Take off the heat and stir in orange liqueur.