Try looking for recipes for polenta cake.

Have you asked the restaurant about it yet?

Thanks, colleenoz!

No, carolb. I just had it yesterday and it was take-out. I can ask the next time we go there.

It's really hard to tell what it is just from a description, but if you google, you'll see lots of recipes for cast iron baked cornbread and cornmeal cakes, including ones that are baked with an upsidedown cake style top. Maybe if you can find some that sound like what you had, we can help you narrow it down?

I've seen recipes for cornbread cakes that have three times as much wheat flour as cornmeal, but that does not sound like what you want. You might have to improvise and experiment, if you think it is worth it. This might be what the restaurant itself did (and it sounds like it), and I doubt they would want to give out their recipes.

I used to bake desserts for a restaurant in San Francisco, and I never gave my recipes to anyone while I was working there.

Yes, I figured I’d experiment to recreate it, but since the finish on top was so unusual I thought I’d ask here first to see if that was familiar to anyone. The place is not exactly a restaurant… it’s more of a take-out bbq joint. They opened at the end of March and are already expanding their menu. And I think they have a ”Ricky” baking for them, because they often offer ‘infused’ brownies. lol!

What does the gooey top taste like - caramelized sugar?

And I'm leaning toward it being a polenta cake - and/or maybe semolina?

The brown top looks like my regular cornbread does when I take it out of the cast iron pan. That is actually the bottom. I think they have poured a sugar glaze over the hot bread.

Based on a visual inspection, I was thinking along those same lines... a sugar glaze, a cast iron pan, flip the cake after it comes out of the oven, etc. But that doesn't seem to be it. The top isn't sweet at all and you can tell that they didn't flip the cake -- you can clearly see the bottom and it looks just like the bottom would normally look if it was baked in a pan. It's more of a texture thing.... as if they smeared the baked cake with something and then ran it under the broiler? but it's not sugar or a simple syrup. It's not a sweet topping.

I make a sweet cornbread with olive oil and buttermilk that you could use as a base to experiment with. It's almost a cake. I didn't like cornbread until I found this recipe.

1 c. cornmeal

1 c. flour

1/3 c. sugar (original recipe calls for 1/2 c.)

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 c. olive oil

2/3 c. buttermilk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spread shortening on the sides of a 9" square pan and put it in the oven as it preheats. Remove the pan from the oven when it reaches 400 and tip the pan to make sure the melted shortening covers the bottom.

Meanwhile, whisk the dry ingredients. Stir in the oil, buttermilk and eggs until the dry ingredients are completely moistened. Spread batter in hot pan and bake 20 minutes until top is slightly domed and bread is a deep golden brown.

You can give it a little Italian flare by adding some grated lemon zest.

It might have been fat to keep it from burning in the broiler?

Thanks for the recipe, Eileen. That looks just about where I might start.

plllog, I wish I still had a specimen. lol! Based on the texture I remember, I don't think it was fat. Look very closely at the front right corner in my photo.... see how it looks like it "stretched" where it was cut? ok, we're getting weird here. lol. I'm thinking crazy ideas like it might have been brushed with a gelatin or an egg yolk wash.

Or there could be some wheat flour in it. Egg wash would be odd, but conceivable, And egg yolk is fat. ;)