Double-Corn Tea Cake

This is how Dorie describes her recipe…

“The color of this plain looking cake is sunshine yellow; the crumb tight and fine; the texture almost melt in your mouth, with a surprisingly pleasant roughness on the tongue; and the taste bursting with the true flavor of sweet corn.”  

Sounds like summer in a loaf pan to me.  We are told this recipe uses “corn flour” not corn meal or masa harina and that it is easily found in supermarkets.  Well, last recipe I had no problem finding the lavender which I thought was going to be a problem and this corn flour proved to be a little more elusive that I had thought.  It took me 3 stores to find it…which is a good thing I finally found it because I think that third store was going to be my last haha.

I had high hopes for this one since I do love a good corn bread.  Even though this wasn’t suppose to be corn bread, I figured it would be similar.  The recipe came together easily and baked up golden.

I have to say my initial response was that I didn’t quite care for this cake.  I don’t know what it was about it but I was actually thinking I might not send it off to my tasters….but then I thought, well isn’t that what being a taster is all about??

I sent it off telling them I wasn’t sure what they would think of it…not quite corn bread, but corn bread….

I started getting reviews back and they were ALL very positive….they loved it.   Whoa, who knew?  It seemed like most of them still thought of it as corn bread…maybe a sweet corn bread, even saying it would taste great with chili or soup.  I don’t think that is what Dorie intended for this recipe…more of a tea and jam sort of cake but you know, it was a success nonetheless.

Their enjoyment of it had me go back and try it again.  This time it had cooled and sat for a while.  I don’t know if that changed the flavor and consistency, but surprisingly I liked it much better when I tried it the second time.  I could really taste the sweetness and liked the almost sugar crust.  I could see myself making these again, but I think as mini muffins rather than as a loaf.