Salaams and a hearty hello to everyone!
The Hubby, Zuni (my 1 year-old son), and I are finally in California! We’ve been here for one week already and we still have a few more weeks to go, but I feel like our time here is going to fly by!
Anyway, today’s recipe is an awesome coconut cake that I adapted from Chef In Disguise. It’s Basbousa, albeit lightened up compared to more traditional recipes in terms of texture. I’ve made this cake almost 10 times in the last few months, it’s that good! Lately I’ve been getting experimental and thinking about baking the cake in round pans and layering with a light whipped cream… just thinking about it is making my mouth water 🤤
Coconut Semolina Cake / Basbousa
Ingredients
Syrup
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup water
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup semolina
- 1 cup desiccated coconut, plus more for garnish
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup plain yogurt (regular or Greek; any fat content)
- ½ cup neutral flavored oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Prepare Syrup
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Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until the sugar has dissolved and remove from the heat. Set aside.
Prepare Cake
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Preheat the oven to 375°F and set aside a greased 9”x13” baking dish.
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In a large bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, semolina, coconut, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
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In a separate bowl, whisk eggs until frothy. Add yogurt, oil, and vanilla and mix.
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Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture, and gently mix until thoroughly combined. Transfer batter to prepared baking pan and bake until an inserted toothpick near the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. For a golden color, place under the broiler for a few minutes.
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Allow the cake to cool for about 5 minutes. Pour the prepared syrup over the warm cake and allow it to be absorbed. Garnish with desiccated coconut.
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Allow the prepared cake to sit for a few hours to soak up the syrup, before slicing and serving.
Recipe Notes
Recipe can be halved and baked in a 9-inch round pan or 8-inch square pan. Bake time will be around 20 minutes.
The syrup needs to only be cooked until the sugar has dissolved. This should only take a couple of minutes, and the consistency should still be pourable and not too thick.
Cake can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days. It can be stored for longer in the refrigerator.
Semolina has a tendency to absorb liquids. The cake may initially taste very sweet, however after soaking for a few hours, the sweetness definitely mellows out and the resulting cake is perfect in terms of sweetness and texture.
Hello Henna
Thank you so much for making one of my recipes and blogging about it. I am really glad you and your family enjoy it. I can’t wait to hear how the layering experiment turns out
I hope you will have a wonderful time in California
Wow! What an amazing looking cake! Dear Hina, I’ve shared an award with you. Please come by and pick it up 🙂
Assalamualaikum, nice yummy blog you have here! I love coconut. <3
Assalam-u-alaikum!
Stumbled upon your blog a few days ago. Love the recipes and clicks. Keep up the good work!
I made this cake yesterday. Loved the texture but it was VERY sweet; due to the syrup I guess. But my family and I enjoyed the leftover the next day after it was in the fridge overnight. It didn’t seem that sweet, actually it was perfect.
If I omit the syrup on my next try will the sugar be low or normal ? If no, than what should the quantity be ?
Wsalam!
JazakAllah for the kind words!
So the thing with this type of cake is that the sugar syrup adds both moisture and sweetness to the cake. Like you said, I’m sure if you eat the cake as soon as you pour the syrup on, it will be too sweet. I would suggest preparing the cake ahead of time. I sometimes make it and store it I the fridge up to 2 days before I want to serve it.
I wouldn’t recommend completely omitting the syrup. The cake is made up of semolina, so it will naturally have a drier structure without the syrup. Maybe what you can try to do is add a bit of syrup, try it, and add more if needed.
Hi, what do you mean by neutral oil?
Hello! So neutral flavored oil is something like canola or vegetable oil. You want to avoid oils that are strongly flavored, like olive oil.
This is such an easy and delicious recipe! Thanks fir sharing. My family absolutely LOVED this cake and devoured it in a couple of days. I’m going to have to make another cake soon!
Thank you so much for your feedback! I really appreciate it!
This recipe turned out so so good! My whole family loved it and I’ll definitely be making it again. 😍 Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much! This makes me so happy!
A must try if you are a big coconut fan. A perfectly moist golden coconut cake. My family thoroughly enjoyed it. I am so glad that I came across this on Instagram. This cake will be on my bake list for a long time.
Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m so happy that you enjoyed it!
Just made and had this! Halved the recipe and it came out perfect. Thanks for sharing
Thank you so much!