recipe: semolina cake

This is a delicious cake, and very easy to make. The last time I made it, I blanched the almonds the night before so that making the cake would seem even more effortless. Everything is mixed into one bowl, and the syrup hardly even needs stirring. It’s a sweet one, and is a very good accompaniment to tea or coffee.

Semolina Cake

 

Cake:

• 2 cups semolina
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup yoghurt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• ½ cup rosewater (or several drops of rose essence in ½ cup water)
• ¼ cup almonds

Syrup:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• seeds from 3 cardamom pods

 Method:

• Blanch almonds and remove skins. 
• Heat oven to 180º C and butter (or oil) a rectangular baking dish. 
• Mix semolina and oil in a bowl. Add all other cake ingredients, except almonds.
• Spread mixture into baking dish, top with rows of almonds.
• Bake for 45 minutes to an hour – the cake will become brown at the edges and shrink slightly at the sides.
• Towards the end of baking, put all syrup ingredients into a medium-sized saucepan, and cook for 10 minutes on low heat.
• Remove cake from oven, cut into squares or diamonds.
• Pour syrup over cake while cake is still hot. Serve when cake is cool and the syrup has been absorbed.