Basbousa - Semolina Cakes With Syrup

From: chef FIFI

On Jun 23, 2006

10 star basboosa.Some like a drier grittier basboosa and some like a yummy moist cakey basboosa, well this is it.I have tried a recipe that called for using yogurt and it was a sour flop. This cake was very easy to make. I added a bit orange blossom water into the batter and the syrup. I also made a bit extra syrup because I like my middle eastern cakes sweet. I also reduced the semolina to 1 3/4 cup and added 1/4 shredded coconut. I did however have to increase the baking time quite a bit to approx 40 minutes. I will use this recipe over and over in the future. Thanks for the recipe.

From: Chef #343597

On Aug 19, 2006

I found this a really quick and easy recipe. My husband **really** likes it, and says it's the perfect partner to a cup of coffee. He's had repeat servings today. We had only a few slight variations in our recipe: I ran out of semolina while making this. I was a 1/3 cup short, so I made up the remainder with finely ground polenta (cornmeal). I only had whole almonds in skin on hand, so these went on as well. Also, our unbaked mix was a little to 'wet' to have diagonal lines drawn into it as instructed. And - just as the cake was finished baking and ready for syrup, I had to drive out somewhere in a hurry, so I left the syrup on the cake in a still warm oven. This caused the honey syrup to make a really nice shiny toffee glaze on the almonds, and brown the cake slightly. That was really nice! Thank you for posting this, it was a very lovely recipe. I don't visit here often, and this is my only review! I stopped by looking for semolina cake recipes because we had... (don't laugh) ...we ran out of flour. Today, our family enjoyed this cake warm, as well as cold from the fridge. We'll definitely make it again. Thank you!