Corn flour - milk cake, aka mâlai dulce

The polenta from last night reminded me of a cake I ate last summer at a bakery, more like a pastry shop, in the former capital of Transilvania, Cluj Napoca. While walking around the Opera I found two places, the pastry shop, and a street food vendor that served delicious yeast dough filled with all sorts of great things.

While my son was enlarging his head with mathematics, I quickly googled the net to find some recipes, and as I got home I adapted one to be my very own 5 minute whip-up cake.

On the internet everyone is claiming that they ate this at grandma's. Hmmm... Seriously? Apparently I have not visited my Romanian friend's grandmas, because last summer was the first time I ever ate this cake, but it definitely felt like I missed something out in my childhood for not eating this!!!

Maybe they weren't Transylvanian grandmas, but rather Oltenian grandmas who baked this.. will just keep musing.. That should make me feel a bit better for missing out.

Will let you know tomorrow how it tastes, or look likes, keeping fingers crossed that at least remotely will resemble the pastry shop's cake, but tonight I am typing the ingredients and amounts in to be able to reproduce it in case it turns out good.

Ingredients

1 1 /2 cup corn grits, aka polenta

1/2 cup grits (cream of wheat)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

lemon zest of 1 lemon

3 large eggs (I used 3, but wasn't fluffy enough, so tomorrow will bake one with 4)

1 cup sugar

2 cups yogurt ( I actually used my last bottle of creamy kefir with a little extra store bought)

1 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

Serve on its own with a tea, or with a dollop of jam, maybe even whipped (sour)cream if you wanna be extra fancy. I will definitely try it with some whipped sour cream tomorrow.

Preheat the oven to 320 F, 160 C.

Grease a 9" x 13" (30 cm x 40 cm) with butter and flour, or line with parchment paper.

Mix the dry ingredients together (corn meal, grits, flour, salt, baking powder).

Beat the eggs gradually with the sugar, add vanilla, yogurt, milk, and oil, and mix in the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth, no lumps at all.

Bake on the medium rack for 45 minutes, until light golden brown.

Just checked mine, and the smell is ahhhmahhzing!!! Can't wait to get it out of the oven, and I already feel the guilt for eating those coconut thins that were way too sweet, and not needed in my diet. 😜

Bon appetite! 

Ps. Now you are on a journey of developing this recipe to perfection. If you have time wait until I bake some more varieties, but if you are adventurous join me and bake along to fix mistakes :).