Name: Semolina Cake
Yield: Makes: 10–12 pieces
Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients: 400 g caster sugar; 5 free-range medium eggs, beaten; Large glug of brandy; 3 large pieces of cussia bark or cinnamon quills; 200 ml light olive oil; 2 tsp. mastic or 1 tbsp. orange blossom water; Zest and juice of 1 large orange; 500 g fine semolina; Whole blanched almonds, to decorate; Juice of ½ lemon; 3 tsp. baking powder; 7 cloves; 200 g caster sugar

Preparation info

Makes:
10–12 pieces

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Real Greek

By Tonia Buxton

Published 2016

About

As with all good Greek desserts, there is a syrup to steep this semolina cake in. And for flavour I like to use mastic, which is a tree resin taken from trees grown only on the island of Hios – and is an acquired flavour used in ice cream. You can substitute it with vanilla extract, orange blossom water or rosewater.

Ingredients

For the syrup

400 g caster sugar
3 large pieces of cussia bark or cinnamon quills

Method

Make the syrup: Place the sugar, cinnamon and cloves in a pan with the lemon juice and 400 ml cold water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a steady simmer for 15–20 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Preheat the ove