Whole Orange Semolina Cake With Rosemary Syrup

I am back with yet another cake recipe this time. In my first post this year I mentioned (although, I have said this umpteen number of times  previously as well) that I love to bake cakes. Simple cakes with no fuss recipes are the kind of desserts which I am always ready to whip up. It brings happiness to me more than anything else.

And being a food blogger, I feel imperative to bring together the seasonal fresh produce into my cakes and bakes. Whenever I go to market for buying the groceries, my eyes keep looking for the fresh produce which is available right there in season for the reasons a) seasonal fresh produce have the power to transform a good recipe into a remarkable one without much of an effort needed and b) they are economical on the pocket too.

T’is the season of oranges! We get loads and loads of them in winter, and of different varieties too. They are vibrantly colorful and deliciously juicy, which are definitely needed to perk your mood up on a cold mauve day of winter. A dear friend of mine has a beautiful crop of these tiny little kumquats every year during winters. And she is gracious enough to offer me these beauties almost every year now.

They are hellishly pucker-y yet amazingly fragrant. I candy them, make marmalade with them and add them to the cakes too. This time I combined them with other sweet variety of oranges and made a whole orange cake with them. This is not the first time I am making a whole orange cake. I have tried the Nigella lawson’s recipe a couple of years ago and that was just amazing. That one was gluten free too.

But this has got semolina in it and is sweetened using orange and rosemary syrup. This being a syrup cake, I believe has got the Turkish influence. It’s a cross between an pudding and a cake. And did I mention that it has got no butter or oil. Probably, it gets the natural fat from the orange skin which goes into making this. And that makes it quite lighter in texture. Taste wise it is very similar to the orange and kamquat gluten free cake, which I had made previously. This has got marmalade like bitter aftertaste, which gets mellowed down by the sweet orange and rosemary syrup which is soaked into. 

Whole Orange Semolina Cake With Rosemary Syrup

2015-01-20 08:54:29

Whole Orange Semolina Cake With Rosemary Syrup

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For the cake

1. 600 gm oranges (mix variety)
2. 1 tsp baking powder
3. 6 eggs
4. 200 gm caster sugar
5. 150 gm fine semolina
6. 150 gm ground almonds
7. 1 1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

For the syrup

1. 600 gm sweet oranges
2. 100 gm caster sugar
3. 125 ml water
4. 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
5. 2 tbsp orange flavored liqueur (optional)
6. 2 sprigs fresh rosemary

For the cake

1. Place unpeeled oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil. Boil covered, 1 1/2 hours or until oranges are tender; drain. Cool.
2. Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Grease a 9 inch springform pan line with parchment paper.
3. Trim and discard the ends from the oranges. Half the oranges and discard the seeds. Process oranges into a smooth puree, including rind.
4. Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl for 5 minutes or until thick and creamy. Stir egg mixture into orange mixture. Mix in the baking powder.
5. Fold in the ground almonds, semolina and rosemary. Spread mixture into a pan.
6. Bake cake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Stand cake in pan for 45 minutes before turning onto a cake plate.
7. Make rosemary syrup (instructions follows).
8. Spoon hot syrup over warm cake. Serve cake warm or at room temperature.

For the syrup

1. Remove rind from one orange with a zester into thin strips and remove rind from the other orange using a vegetable peeler into long broad strip. Juice the oranges.
2. Place sugar, water and juice in a small saucepan over low heat; stir, without boiling until sugar dissolves.
3. Add the orange rind and rosemary sprigs and bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes, until syrup thickens. Remove from heat, add liqueur if using.

By Himanshu Taneja

The White Ramekins http://thewhiteramekins.com/