Orange Cornmeal Cake

This is a recipe that I tried yesterday. Since I have posted it, it was a success. Enjoy.

Orange Cornmeal Cake

For an even crunchier topping, you can use sanding sugar in place of granulated sugar in Step 3 (I have no idea what sanding sugar and have never seen it.) Look for it in the baking section of your grocery store.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Yield: serves 8

Ingredients:
½ cup olive, plus more for pan
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar, plus 1/3 cup for topping
½ cup dry white wine (or orange juice) –used orange juice and it was excellent
1/ ¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
½ cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
Orange segments, for serving (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush bottom and sides of an 8-inch round cake pan with oil, line bottom with a round of wax or parchment paper, and brush with oil.
In a large bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, 1 cup sugar, and wine (orange juice) until smooth. Add flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and orange zest, whisk gently to combine.
Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle top evenly with remaining 1/3 cup sugar (topping will be thick). Bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and a tester inserted in center comes out clean. 35 to 40 minutes.
Cool in pan 20 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake; invert cake gently onto a plate, and remove parchment paper. Reinvert cake onto a rack to cool completely. Serve with orange segments, if desired.

Made: March 3, 2012- excellent
(Martha Stewart recipe)