I always keep on finding ways to replace the plain refined flour with the alternate flours, as maximum as possible. Most of the time, wholewheat flour finds it’s way into the coffee cakes or cookies I bake at home.  Recently, I baked a cornmeal cake, which came out kinda surprise to me.

A hearty golden hued cake with aromatic sweet hints of vanilla and tart strawberry filling. And next in the row happened to be this Semolina cake. I was thrilled to see the recipe of semolina cakes soaked into orange syrup in a Turkish food series on TV. I knew I had to bake those moist yet light sweet treats filled of aromatic flavors.

But that was very long ago, and I hadn’t kept note of the recipe either. But it always stayed at the back of my mind. It is spring for us and Oranges have been here for quite sometime now. They’d be soon gone, so there’s another rush to make something out of them.

I had made strawberry and orange sorbet last week, combining two beautiful and abundant fruits of winter here. But sadly, I couldn’t capture the pics well. I plan to do that sometime again and would come back with the recipe soon.

The sorbet couldn’t sated the desire for more orange and it reminded me of those lovely orange syrup cakes. I just had to bake that cake and it was the time. I tried to recollect the ingredients and I could get this lovely orange yogurt semolina cake, closest possible to the one in my memories.

I baked the cake a day in advance, soaked it with orange syrup and then slathered it with some 80 % dark chocolate ganache the next day, before serving. Oranges and Dark chocolate, another favorite pairing of mine, in fact a classic one.

The cake alone has a beautiful identity and you can relish it as is with your tea or coffee. Dark chocolate is a bonus treat and who doesn’t like a perk!

Ingredients

For Cake

1/3 cup ground blanched almonds
1 cup plain flour
1 cup semolina
100 gm butter, at room temperature
1 cup superfine sugar
1 cup hung yogurt
3 eggs, separated
2 tsp grated orange rind
2 tsp baking powder

For Syrup

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup fresh orange juice

For Chocolate Ganache

100 gm dark chocolate
1/2 cup low fat cream

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree C. Grease and line a 8 inch round cake pan with parchment paper and keep aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric beater in a bowl, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the yogurt, egg yolks and orange zest, until combined well.
3. Sift in the flour, semolina, ground almonds and baking powder and stir to combine.
4. In another clean bowl, using clean electric beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
5. Fold the egg whites into the cake batter using a large spatula, until just combined.
6. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for around 40 minutes, or until golden and skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. While the cake is baking, prepare orange syrup by simmering orange juice and sugar in a saucepan for 5 minutes, without stirring.
8. Once the cake is baked, pour the syrup over the hot cake. Set aside to cool completely.
9. To make the chocolate ganache, chop the chocolate into small chunks. Heat the cream in a saucepan, until it starts to boil. Add the chopped chocolate into the hot cream and let stand for about 5 minutes. Stir gently to combine the chocolate and cream together.
10. Pour over the cooled cake and let drizzle down the edges, without covering the sides of cake uniformly. Garnish the top with thin orange slices.