Upside-Down Orange Polenta Cake

Two years. Wow. I’ve been livin’ low-fodmap for over two years. I remember so vividly the day I came home from my second breath test that gave me the news. The first breath test, one month prior, had confirmed I had lactose intolerance. Yay, I thought, I had finally figured out what was wrong with me! Until I hadn’t. I barely felt any better going off lactose. Frustrated, I prepared for the next test. I arrived early in the morning to drink my full glass of thick fructosey liquid and let my stomach do the work, or in my case, not do the work. I came home that day in pain and ready to explode, a feeling I knew all too well, but this time I actually knew why. It was confirmed – I had fructose malabsorption – whatever that was!???

Aside from feeling sick, I was starved – literally. The day before the breath test you have to follow a restricted diet and then fast from dinner onwards. So the first thing on my mind after the test was food food food. I rummaged the fridge and pantry for anything to eat, checking my new info-sheet as I went along. It was all too confusing and overwhelming. I got so far as to boil an egg, but in a state of delirium ended up on the kitchen floor in tears convinced there was nothing I could eat.

Thankfully that was the worst of it, I assure you. One kitchen break-down, then I was flying.

It took over 2 weeks for me to feel any benefit of a super strict, plain low-fodmap diet, but that’s typical in order to get the ‘clearing’ happening. And it’s been happy days from there. It just keeps getting easier. I talked here about how this change has introduced me to heaps of new and exciting flavours and ingredients, and how I now eat better than ever! And even when I think I’ve learnt everything there is about eating on the fodmap diet, I learn something new. For example, the fact that polenta makes deliciously tasty gluten free cakes!

So there it is. It’s been two years of livin’ low-fodmap and Melbourne Cup Day conveniently marks the day. Cup Day already calls for a BBQ with family and friends, a big jug of Pimms, and perhaps a cheeky bet on the big race. Now I just throw a fodmap-friendly cake in the mix and call it my fodmapiversary. Last year it was a flourless chocolate cake (recipe will come eventually), but this year I was in a polenta cake kinda mood! This cake is perfect for sharing, and so surprisingly light, which is ideal after a day of eating. Treat yourself and finish it off with a dollop of yoghurt or cream, and of course a cuppa!

Upside-Down Orange Polenta Cake

1 orange, thinly sliced in circles
3 eggs
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Juice & zest of half an orange
3/4 cup polenta
1 cup almond meal
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup natural yoghurt

Preheat oven to 180°C and prepare a 9-inch cake tin with baking paper. Prepare orange slices by placing them in a pot of simmering water for 5 minutes. Carefully drain the slices and arrange them tightly on the bottom of the cake tin, only slightly overlapping. Whisk the eggs and maple syrup on high speed, adding the oil, vanilla, orange zest and juice, and whisk to combine. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl, and then fold into the wet mix, followed by the yoghurt. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Enjoy.