We recently had a meal in a Turkish restaurant and I chose semolina cake for dessert. I really liked the texture of the cake and the syrup it was soaked in.
So I thought I would make my own take on a similar type of cake. I wanted it to be more of a sponge and not as dense as the one I had eaten in the restaurant but keeping the rich syrup.
I decided on orange for this recipe and I love the floral accent that orange blossom water gives to baking so I knew I wanted to incorporate it somewhere in this bake and it worked beautifully in the syrup.
It is very sweet cake and goes really well with a nice dollop of clotted cream!
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Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (160 fan) then and grease the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform tin with parchment.
Put the butter, sugar and orange zest in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Finally add the semolina, flour and milk until you have a smooth mixture.
Place the mixture in the prepared tin and level.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
To make the syrup place the orange juice, water, sugar and orange blossom water in a small pan and on a medium heat melt the sugar.
Once the sugar is melted bring to the boil and keep stirring for about 5 minutes until it has thickened slightly.
When the cake is cooked brush the syrup over the top of the cake.
Sprinkle the pistachios over the top and leave for the syrup to soak in and cool in the tin.
Remove from the tin when cool.
Orange Semolina Cake with Orange Blossom Syrup
Sarah’s Servings:10-12
Sarah's Skill: Easy
Baking time: 45-50 minutes
Ingredients:
Cake 125g Unsalted butter
175g Caster sugar
Zest of 1 Large Orange
2 Large eggs
110g Semolina
250g Self-Raising Flour
125ml Milk
Syrup
Juice of 1 Large Orange
120ml Water
150g Caster sugar
2 tsp Orange blossom water
15g Chopped Pistachios
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (160 fan).
Line and grease the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform tin with parchment.
Put the butter, sugar and orange zest in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
Next add the semolina, flour and milk until you have a smooth mixture.
Place the mixture in the prepared tin and level.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
To make the syrup place the orange juice, water, sugar and orange blossom water in a small pan and on a medium heat melt the sugar.
Once the sugar is melted bring to the boil and keep stirring for about 5 minutes until it has thickened slightly.
When the cake is cooked brush the syrup over the top of the cake, sprinkle the pistachios over the top and leave for the syrup to soak in and cool in the tin.
Remove from the tin when cool.
Sarah’s extra slice……..
You could use lemon zest for this cake and just use the lemon juice in the syrup.
If you don’t have pistachio nuts you could use almonds, walnuts or pecans. Most nuts would pair well with this bake but the pistachios have such a great colour and taste.