Revani: Turkish Semolina Cake

For my fam's mother's day dinner I made an awesome semolina cake layered with lemon curd and topped with fresh whipped cream and berries. I doubled the original recipe from Food For Poems to make two 9 in round cakes and instead of soaking the cake in simple syrup after it was cooked, I used orange juice. I thought the cake had enough sugar baked into it and I think the orange complimented the lemon curd nicely. This was really just a spin on a summery strawberry short cake that is one of my favorite cakes to assemble.

For the Cake:

Dry:
1 cup semolina
1 1/3 cup flour
2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet:
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 eggs

Lemon Curd Recipe Here

Whipped Cream:

2 C Heavy Cream
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla or lemon- your choice

Method:

Preheat the oven to 375 and grease and flour two 9" cake pans.
Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl and all wet in another bowl.
Combine dry into wet and mix until just combined.
Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for about 25 minutes or until they are firm to the touch and a knife comes out clean from the center.
Let the cakes cools in the pans on wire racks.
Once cooled, loosen around the edge with a knife and knock the side of the pans with the heel of your hand until you can feel the cake is loose from the bottom.
Flip onto wire rack.
Cut each cake into 2 layers making 4 layers total.
Starting with the first layer soak the cut side up with OJ and then put a layer of lemon curd. Keep soaking with OJ and spreading with lemon curd for each layer until all 4 are assembled.
Make the whipped cream by combining all 3 ingredients and whipping with whisk or beater until the cream holds a nice shape and is stiff with incorporated air. Pile the entire batch on the top of the cake- about an inch and a half to 2 inches thick- wow I know.
Layer the very top with fresh berries.

Nan Khatai (Indian Semolina Cookies)

I wanted to make something using semolina flour so I did a search on taste spotting and found this recipe on Spice Foodie. It's really basic and easy to do. The cardamom smells really nice and the semolina flour is fun to experiment with. I think I made about 10 cookies with this recipe- it has a small yield so if you want more cookies double it. I also used vanilla extract but the original recipe calls for almond extract.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup fine semolina
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
crushed almonds

1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tbsp. whole milk (you can also try soy or almond milk)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Method:

1. Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Chop the almonds for the dough into coarse chunks, set aside. In a large bowl sift together the a.p. flour, semolina, cardamom, baking soda, and sugar. Add the coarse almond pieces and stir until well combined.

2. Pour the milk and almond extract into the cool melted butter, stir until well combined. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, stir until well combined and a firm dough is achieved. If you find the mixture is not sticking together add a couple more drops of milk- but only a little bit at a time. Form a ball with the dough, cover and allow to sit 10 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 350F/180C and prepare a cookie sheet. Divide the dough into even sized balls. Evenly space the balls on the cookie sheet, use the palm of your hand to flatten the cookies. Place on whole almond in the center of each cookie. Bake in center of oven for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.