Passing that Dutch: Lemon Cornmeal Cake with Lemon Glaze and Crushed-Blueberry Sauce

Reeducation at Warschauer S-Bahn
Photo credit: Erin Kimmel

As some of you may know, I have been rediscovering my hip hop roots lately, thanks largely to having downloaded (I mean, bought) the 10th anniversary platinum edition of Nas’ classic 1994 album Illmatic.

“What hip hop roots?” exclaimed Erin incredulously, when I told her the news. To which I responded that the second CD I ever purchased after Chumbawumba’s Tubthumper (anarchopunk forever!) was Ma$e’s Harlem World and that I beefed with hella ghetto kids on my nerdy high school basketball team, so there. Also, I believe Nas directly interpellated me in his chart-topping hit “N.Y. State of Mind.” (See verse two: “And the stuff that I write / Is even tougher than dykes.” Word Nas, word.)

In any case, in the midst of this re-hiphopification, Missy Elliot’s “Pass That Dutch” has been stuck in my head. Though some may think this is merely a narrow metaphor for marijuana, I have been dropping it lately haphazardly in a wide variety of contexts; and while such use generally invokes blank stares, I have quite enjoyed using it. Fittingly, I also think that this phrase is the perfect metaphor to frame this here blog post in which I, like Missy, pass that dutch and post a recipe that I neither made nor wrote but rather, briefly consumed.

So without further ado, I present to you, my pot-smoking Communist pig-friends, my friend Rebecca’s wicked dessert: Lemon Cornmeal Cake with Lemon Glaze and Crushed-Blueberry Sauce!

Peace,
Prof. Tata (and Rebecca)



Lemon Cornmeal Cake with Lemon Glaze and Crushed-Blueberry Sauce

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups (packed) powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons (or more) fresh lemon Juice

Cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled
Crushed-Blueberry Sauce

For glaze:
Combine powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice in small bowl. Stir with spoon until smooth and paste-like, adding more lemon juice by 1/2 teaspoonfuls if glaze is too thick to spread. Set aside.

For cake:
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter 9-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides; line bottom with parchment. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl; whisk to blend. Whisk buttermilk, eggs, lemon peel, and vanilla in small bowl. Pour buttermilk mixture and melted butter into flour mixture. Using rubber spatula, gently fold liquids into flour mixture until just blended (do not stir). Scrape batter into pan; spread evenly.

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean and cake pulls away from sides of pan, about 30 minutes.

Immediately run knife around sides of cake. Place rack atop cake in pan. Using oven mitts, hold pan and rack firmly together and invert cake onto rack. Remove pan from cake. Place another rack on bottom of cake; invert 1 more time so that cake is top side up. Stir glaze until blended. While cake is still very hot, drop glaze by tablespoonfuls onto cake; spread to within 1/2 inch of edge (some glaze may drip down sides of cake). Cool completely. Serve with Crushed-Blueberry Sauce.

Danke: Epicurious.

© C is for Kitchen 2009