Winter always feels like a little bit of a bummer in the mitbach with so few fresh ingredients in-season. This February, use in-season citrus fruit to bring a taste of kayitz into your kitchen with this semolina cake made in the mitbachon last summer by several groups of chanichim and horim! The recipe calls for orange, but feel free to replace the zest & juice with clementine, lemon, grapefruit, or any citrus fruit you like! The cake uses semolina flour from durum wheat, most commonly used with pasta dough, as a fun flour alternative to bring a new texture, color, and flavor into your dessert!
*note: semolina flour contains gluten
Semolina Cake
Batter
1½ sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1½ cups semolina flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
3 oranges, juiced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt
¾ cup whole milk
Syrup
⅓ cups sugar
2 tbsp water
¼ tsp salt
1 orange, juiced
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9” round cake pan.
Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until smooth.
Add in egg and continue to beat. Slowly, add in your orange juice and zest while mixing.
In a separate bowl, combine semolina flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
In another bowl, whisk greek yogurt and milk.
Add ⅓ of your dry ingredients, then ⅓ of your yogurt/milk. Continue to add remaining dries alternating with yogurt, and mixing in between each addition.
Spoon batter into your prepared cake pan and bake about 50-55 minutes – until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick placed in the center of the cake comes out clean.
When your cake goes into the oven, it is time to start preparing your syrup. Combine sugar, water, salt, and orange juice in a small saucepan over low to medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring regularly.
Allow your syrup to simmer for about 5 minutes until the sugar is dissolved completely and some of the water has begun to evaporate, creating a thicker syrup. Make sure to allow your syrup to cool for at least 10-15 minutes.
When the cake is fully baked, remove it from the oven and with a toothpick, begin to poke holes all over the surface of the cake, trying to poke almost, but not entirely to the bottom of the pan. Carefully spoon your syrup evenly over the cake.
Allow your cake to cool in the pan to ensure that it will continue to soak up the syrup. When cooled completely, remove from the pan, cut, serve, and enjoy!
