Gluten-Free Orange Polenta Cake (No Almonds)

This gluten-free polenta cake has a pop of orange flavor from orange zest. The single layer cake is moist, fluffy and mixes up in one bowl. There’s no almond or almond flour like many other polenta cakes. Top it with a 5-minute, 3-ingredient creamy orange glaze (no powdered sugar). The recipe includes dairy-free options.

Try more of my gluten-free cakes including my highly rated fluffy coconut layer cake, super simple gluten-free vanilla snack cake and fun and festive toaster oven funfetti cake.

Is Polenta Gluten-Free?

Yes! Polenta is made from corn which is naturally gluten-free. However, if you are concerned about cross-contamination, I recommend Nuts.com Polenta which is processed in a gluten-free facility. Bob’s Red Mill, has several polenta options, but only one is processed in their gluten free facility. Look for the one that is clearly labeled gluten-free.

What is Polenta?

Technically polenta is a dish of yellow corn grits cooked with liquid. But the ingredient, yellow corn grits is sometimes labeled as polenta. Yellow corn grits are made from corn and are coarse grained, similar to the texture of steel cut oats. This coarse grained polenta will give the cake what I call “rustic” texture. You’ll notice the polenta in the baked cake.

Some brands will label white corn grits (more commonly used for southern grits) as polenta also. I prefer to use the yellow stuff for actual polenta.

Instant Polenta is much finer grained and is more similar to cornmeal. The cake will not have that rustic grainy texture. If that’s okay with you, then use instant or even cornmeal.

Ingredients

Gluten-free flour – My preferred brand is King Arthur Measure for Measure flour blend. It works consistently well in almost all of my baked goods, it’s certified gluten-free and is the most affordable of the ones I’ve tested.

Many of my readers have used Cup4Cup in my recipes with good results. I do not test with it because it contains milk powder and it’s quite pricey.

Yellow corn grits or “instant polenta” are what you’ll need for this recipe. Do not use a prepared (cooked) polenta. In a pinch, if you can’t find either of those, cornmeal can be used.

Orange zest is an excellent way to add concentrated flavor to baked goods without adding liquid. The zest is the colorful outer layer of citrus peel. For a quick tutorial on how to zest citrus, see my post How to Zest a Lemon.

For an extra kick of orange, this cake recipe has a little bit of orange extract. The small amount is just enough to bring the orange flavor to the forefront. Too much and the orange flavor tastes artificial.

Oil is my preferred way to get moisture into a gluten-free cake. It does a much better job of hydrating the dry ingredients. Also, cakes made with oil stay more moist over a few days than cakes made with butter. Use a neutral flavored oil like avocado, canola sunflower or other vegetable oil.

I also find that yogurt as opposed to milk also makes gluten-free cakes more moist. I have had equally good results with vegan yogurt. My preferred vegan brand is Kite Hill Almond Milk yogurt substitute. Whichever you use, be sure it’s plain unsweetened yogurt (not Greek yogurt).

The rest of the ingredients are just the basics – eggs, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Cake Toppings

When developing this recipe I wanted to bring orange flavor into whatever topped this cake. I also didn’t want to add something super sweet like a frosting.

The best solution, is to use cream cheese as the base for a glaze. It adds a wonderful slightly sweet, tangy flavor. The easy 5-minute recipe has just 3 ingredients: cream cheese, orange juice and a little bit of sugar. See the recipe here: creamy orange cake glaze.

This cake would also be yummy with my 6-minute creamy rum sauce. I originally developed it for bread pudding but it’s a great all round dessert sauce.