Recipe: Christine Bailey’s gluten-free apricot and orange polenta cake

"A delicious tangy cake the whole family will enjoy. It combines whole pureed oranges and dried apricots to increase the nutritional and fibre content and eliminates the need for lots of sugar. I actually made this for my twins’ birthday and spooned the mixture into individual muffin tins instead of a large cake. This is a simple, easy to make cake full of fruity flavours, healthy and gluten-free," says Christine Bailey, joint winner of the Gluten-free Chef of the Year Award.

Makes 1 x 20cm cake or about 8 muffins
Ingredients​
Zest of two oranges
2 oranges peeled, cut into half
200g dried ready to eat apricots
125g unsalted butter
3 eggs
3tbsp honey or agave nectar
100g gluten-free flour – a mix of rice and potato flour works well
150g quick cook polenta
2tsp gluten-free baking powder

Glaze: 4tbsp pure fruit apricot spread or fine cut marmalade
Method​
1. Preheat the oven to 180∞C, gas mark 4
2. Grease and line a spring form 18-20cm cake tin
3. Place the orange zest and oranges in a food processor and process to form a thick puree. Add the apricots, butter, eggs and honey and process again until smooth.
4. Place the flour, polenta and baking powder in a bowl. Add the puree and beat well. Place in the cake tin and bake in the oven for 30 minutes until a skewer placed in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
5. Heat the orange marmalade or apricot spread until runny then brush over the top of the cake while warm.
6. Leave to cool before serving. Great as a pudding or afternoon tea time treat served with cr?me fraiche