It has been a while since I shared a dessert recipe here on the blog, so much for challenging myself to more baking! So, how about a little basbousa? Basbousa is an Egyptian semolina cake drenched in syrup. Today, I’m sharing my aunt Maha’s special recipe!
It’s Easter weekend. Definitely the time when our minds are busy with egg-cellent recipes and ham or lamb dinners, am I right? In case you missed them, two of my favorite egg recipes are: shakshuka and this easy Mediterranean egg casserole. As far as lamb goes, I admit, I can’t quite decide on one; braised lamb chops, lamb rack, or leg of lamb? What have you decided on for your Easter dinner?
And for dessert?
Semolina treats are popular throughout the Middle East and parts of Europe. There are, quite frankly, too many semolina cake variations out there. Some recipes call for eggs, others call for yogurt. Some use a honey-based syrup, others use a sugar-based syrup. Some syrups are flavored with citrus like orange or tangerine peels, and others use spices like cinnamon or cloves. Some, like Greek-style honey cake, use a combination of all of those flavorings! All semolina treats I have tried are pretty good, but my aunt Maha’s basbousa is my absolute favorite!
The date was July 18, 2014 when aunt Maha graciously e-mailed me her recipe for basbousa (semolina cake drenched in syrup). This is among her specialty dishes that I have counted on enjoying every time we visit her home in Toronto. And because we were not going back for a while, I asked for the recipe so that I can make it for my family and friends in Iowa. Ask and you shall receive!
I don’t know why it took me this long to share this basbousa recipe on the blog. There are two theories behind my reluctance: my selfish desire to keep the recipe all to myself; or, that I am, subconsciously of course, extremely fearful that aunt Maha would not approve of me circulating her recipe. After all, this is a family recipe that she has kept close for years. And here I am, in just a few strokes of the keyboard, making it available to all! Then again, aunt Maha is one of the kindest most generous people I know. She would understand that this is for a greater good.
I have tweaked things slightly, but this remains aunt Maha’s authentic Egyptian basbousa recipe. This is my kind of fuss-free dessert that yields impressive results. I hope you try it soon!
Remember to pin this recipe and share it with loved ones.
Here is the step-by-step for this basbousa (semolina cake):
(print-friendly recipe to follow)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the butter in a small bowl and melt in the microwave. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine together the sugar and yogurt. Now add in the semolina, baking powder and milk. Finally stir in the melted butter, and let the mixture sit briefly so that the butter is absorbed.
Transfer the semolina mixture into a lightly greased 9″-round cake pan or baking dish.
Bake in the 350 degrees F heated-oven for about 40-45 minutes. If necessary, broil ever so briefly so that the top of the basbousa gains color. Watch carefully. When ready, remove from oven.
While the basbousa is baking, prepare the cinnamon simple syrup. In a small sauce pan or pot, combine the sugar, water and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil on high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Turn heat to low and let cook for a few minutes until the syrup thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Let cool completely, then remove the cinnamon stick.
As soon as the basbousa is removed from the oven, pour the cool syrup on the hot basbousa. Let cool completely; syrup must be absorbed into the cake. For best result, let it sit for 1 hour before serving.
When ready to server, top the cake with the coconut chips and the coconut and shaved almonds. Slice and enjoy!
Basbousa: Almond Coconut Semolina Cake Recipe
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: serves 8
Description
Basbousa is an Egyptian semolina cake drenched in syrup. Today, I’m sharing my aunt Maha’s special recipe!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup fine semolina PLUS 1 cup coarse semolina (or 2 cups coarse semolina or 2 cups original Cream of Wheat enriched farina)
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut or coconut chips
- 1/4 cup shaved almonds
Cinnamon Simple Syrup:
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 3/4 cup water
- 1 short cinnamon stick
- 1/4 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Place the butter in a small bowl and melt in the microwave. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine together the sugar and yogurt. Now add in the semolina, baking powder and milk. Finally stir in the melted butter, and let the mixture sit briefly so that the butter is absorbed.
- Transfer the semolina mixture into a lightly greased 9″-round cake pan or baking dish. Bake in the 350 degrees F-heated oven for about 40-45 minutes. If necessary, broil ever so briefly so that the top of the basbousa gains color. Watch carefully. When ready, remove from oven.
- While the cake is baking, prepare the cinnamon simple syrup. In a small sauce pan or pot, combine the sugar, water and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil on high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Turn heat to low and let cook for a few minutes until the syrup thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Let cool completely, then remove the cinnamon stick.
- As soon as the basbousa is removed from the oven, pour the cool syrup on the hot basbousa. Let cool completely; syrup must be absorbed into the cake. For best result, let it sit for 1 hour before serving.
- When ready to serve, top the cake with the coconut chips and the coconut and shaved almonds. Slice and enjoy!
Notes
- Cooking tip: Allow cinnamon simple syrup to cool completely before pouring it onto the hot basbousa
- Cooking tip: For best results, let Basbousa sit for 1 hour before serving. This allows for the syrup to be absorbed into the cake.
- Visit our store to browse our spices, olive oils and bundles!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
More Dessert Recipes:
Greek Yogurt Parfait with Kahlua and Nuts
Hi Suzy,
I can’t wait to try out this recipe! Quick question, can I use fresh shredded coconut or does it have to be dry? I currently have fresh coconuts at home I’d like to use up.
Hi Gigi, I’m thinking it’ll be great to use fresh coconut! I haven’t tried it myself though.
Did you use caster sugar?
This looks yummy and I can’t wait to make it!! I would like to use Hun instead of sugar for the syrup, can you suggest how much honey to use please.
Hi Zahida. Generally speaking, if you want to make a honey simple syrup, you’d need to use 2 parts honey to 1 part water. So in this case, you are using 1 3/4 water, which means you’ll need 3 1/2 cups honey. But can start with 2 1/2 to 3 cups of honey. Hope you enjoy it!
I work with many Middle Eastern people and they exposed me to their cuisine at a local restaurant. The cook there makes an amazing basbousa and I, being a baker, wanted to try it. I found your recipe and followed it exactly… and my coworker’s declared it BETTER THAN THE RESTAURANT’S!!
Amazing recipe. Thank you for sharing it!
Thank you so much, Kassie!!!! So glad you all enjoyed it! Hope you find more recipes here to try!
This was absolutely delicious, easy, and addictive! I didn’t refrigerate it and it only lasted 2 days on the counter. I’m so glad for having this added to my recipe collection. Thanks for sharing it! I can’t wait to make this again.
Awesome, Jamie! So so glad you liked it!!!
Hi,
I made this desert just for my boys this Saturday, it was amazing, easy and tasty. I put a pinch of salt. It became even better after 2-3 hours. Thank you!!!
Awesome, Karin! I’m going to try and add a pinch of salt next time…great idea!
Thank you for sharing this story and your Aunt Mahas recipe. I made this for my fathers birthday. I come from a Greek heritage and we have a similar semolina cake but I wanted to make one without eggs or dairy as my father is fasting for Easter.
I replaced the dairy with non dairy yoghurt, milk and butter and it came out amazing!! Thank you thank you for sharing this and big love to your Aunt!
Vykotria, that is wonderful to hear! I am so glad you enjoyed the Basbousa. And happy birthday to your father!
I prepared this cake today as part of a culinary class I got to teach to international high school students. We chose it as the dessert for our Middle Eastern feast! It was absolutely amazing. We didn’t have coconut, also we added a little rosewater to the syrup, and garnished the cake with the almonds and some edible rose petals!! It was wonderfully decadent. I was so proud of the students, too! Thanks for introducing me to this wonderful dessert which is now solidly a part of my repertoire!
I am so glad to hear this, Julie! Thank you for giving this recipe a try. I am so glad you and the class enjoyed it. And thank you for taking the time to share with me.
Hi Suzy, I’m so excited to try this cake out as soon as possible. I prefer my desserts to be moderately sweet and so would like to know if it would be okay to reduce the sugar added to the cake part of the recipe, so that the syrup balances everything. I’m a bit concerned that the finished cake would be too sweet for my liking. Thanks 🙂
Hi Neha, if you’re not much of a sweet tooth, then yes, I think reducing the sugar a bit would be a good idea. Enjoy!
Just made this for a huge group and it was awesome. Multiplied it by 16 and used all fine semolina. Love this! Thank you.
Wonderful, Suzanne! So glad you all enjoyed it!
Does it become over sweety when I add sugar in cake batter followed by sugar syrup
Hi there, it is meant to be a sweet cake drenched in the honey syrup. If that’s a big concern for you, you can add only 1/2 of the syrup and see.
Can I use Greek yoghurt for this recipe?
Hi Malisha…You can, although it’s best to use plain regular yogurt only because Greek yogurt is a lot thicker.
Thanks for the recipe. My wife is Greek, and we liked the food mediterranea.
Great! Enjoy!
Hi! Thank you so much for this recipe. 🙂 can I use fine semolina entirely?
Yes! You absolutely can. Enjoy!
Hi Suzy
I’m not entirely sure why this post has escaped my radar! As we’re cutting down on gluten in this house this is perfect. I’m sure I could make this with five grain polenta rather than semolina.
I actually love these sort of cakes that are sticky sweet, rather than full of buttercream.
What a great idea to try five grain polenta, David! This is my favorite cake…I love it drenched in syrup!!! Enjoy!
Hi David! Basbousa is my absolute favorite cake! I hope you love it!
Hi there, this came out rathef tasty. I however did face a small challange. Like you instructed, I took out the hot basbousa frm the oven and poured the cooled sugar syrup and allowed it to cool.
When I tried to undish it out of the baking pot, it would not move an inch. I had to eventually break it to dish it out. How can I take the whole round basbousa out of the baking dish without breaking it.
Bissie, thanks so much for sharing! I’m glad you found the basbousa tasty. So, as instructed at the very end of the step-by-step, when the basbousa is ready, after it absorbed the syrup, you simply top it with the coconut topping then slice and serve it by the slice. You do not actually “undish” the whole basbousa cake onto a serving plate…it is sticky as you experienced, and comes out one slice at a time as you see in the pictures. Hope this helps.
Hi I am from India and while looking for recipes to use up some extra semolina I came across yours. I tried it and everyone in my family loved it!! The only problem was that it had become too soggy. It was only after a day that it dried out to the texture that was manageable but by that time only a couple of pieces were left ?. What i want to know is the actual quantity of syrup that should be poured onto the cake?
Hi Bindu! Thanks for stopping in!!! So this cake is supposed to be quite drenched in syrup…and it does break apart easily. You are supposed to use all the syrup, pour on the hot cake and leave it for at least 1 hour so that the cake will completely soak the syrup in. It is messy…by sounds like your family enjoyed it. It’s a favorite of ours!