Egyptian Basboussa Recipe

Egyptian Basboussa Recipe is a cake made very different , semolina mix is first baked and then soaked in sugar syrup for an exceptional treat.

This is an Egyptian sweet semolina cake. There are so many versions of this cake. Some use only semolina and some use flour and semolina in various proportions. There are also recipes using egg. This is an eggless recipe. The preparation is quite easy and interesting. Sugar syrup is poured on the baked cake to make it soft.

Egyptain Basboussa Recipe – How to increase or decrease size

The recipe I have shared makes an 8″ round or 7″ square cake. If you want slices to have lesser height, then go for 9″ round or 8″ square.

For doubling the recipe, double all the ingredients and bake in 10″ round tin or 9″ square tin.

For making half the recipe, divide all the ingredients by two and use 6″ round tin or 5″ square tin.

Egyptian Basboussa Recipe – Ingredients Used for the cake

Chirtoi Rava / Fine Sooji – The coarser variety will make the cake too crumbly. So it is better to use the finest sooji/ semolina available. I have used chirtoti rava. If it is unavailable for you, grind the regular rava in mixie before using. It takes a while to powder rava, so grind it for ten minutes in mixie.

Maida is used as the in this recipe. You can also use whole wheat flour instead of maida. If using WWf, use Ashirwad sharbati atta. Also 40 gm of wwf is enough for this recipe.

Sugar– I have used regular white sugar. But you can also use jaggery powder or any other non refined sugar instead. Use same quantity as the recipe for both the cake and sugar syrup.

Curd/ Yogurt – Regular homemade curd is fine to use. No need for hung curd or Greek yogurt.

Butter – Melted butter is used in the recipe. You can also swap it with melted ghee/ coconut oil/ refined oil instead.

Rose Essence – The cake is rose flavoured, so use the clear rose essence. It gives amazing flavour to the cake, so don’t skip it.

I made a short video to show you the process. The recipe can’t get simpler than this. Just follow the recipe and video and I am sure you would be one proud baker with a beautiful creation.

Basboussa Recipe – Making the Sugar Syrup

The sugar syrup is the most important part of the recipe. Do not be afraid to pour the entire batch on the cake. The cake needs all the syrup. While boiling the syrup, do not boil it for a long time. Remove from the stove after a minute of boiling.

Both the cake and syrup needs to be hot out of stove and oven. Do not allow them to cool down. The syrup won’t be absorbed properly if one of them is cold.

Resting the Basboussa Cake

Semolina cakes tend to be too crumbly because of the texture of semolina. To make it settle well, the cake needs to be rested for a while. Resting makes lots of difference in the final texture of the cake.

Once the sugar syrup is totally absorbed and the cake is completely cool to touch, wrap it with cling film or aluminium foil and let it sit on counter for a minimum of four hours. You can also leave it for 8-12 hours or overnight for resting.

Slice and remove the cake only after the resting period. That way, the semolina won’t crumble and you get nice compact slices.

If you love teacakes, then check out my eight amazing teacakes in the blog. Click on the image to take you to the page. This is a compilation of eight best teacakes in this blog.

I have two teacakes class available for enrollment. One is eggless and the other with eggs. If interested, connect through whatsapp to register.

Egyptian Basboussa Recipe

Gayathri Kumar

Egyptian Basboussa Recipe is a cake made very different , semolina mix is first baked and then soaked in sugar syrup for an exceptional treat

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Resting Time 4 hours hrs

Course Cakes

Cuisine Egyptian

Servings 15 Servings

Ingredients

  

For The Cake:

• 425 gm Fine Semolina / Chiroti Rava
• 65 gm All Purpose Flour / Maida
• 1.5 tbs Baking Powder
• 65 gm Fresh Grated Coconut
• 200 gm Butter Melted
• 1 tsp Rose Essence
• 125 ml Yogurt / Curd
• 100 gm Sugar
• 10-15 Whole Almonds

For The Syrup:

• 300 gm Sugar
• 200 ml Water
• 1 tsp Rose Essence

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 160C.
• Mix flour, semolina, baking powder, sugar and coconut.
• Mix rose essence and curd.
• Add butter to the semolina mixture and mix well.
• Add the curd and bring everything together to form a crumbly mixture.
• Grease an 8"cake tin and place the dough inside.
• Press it to level the surface.
• Cut it into diamonds with a knife.
• Place an almond in each diamond.
• Bake for 40minutes or until the top is golden brown.
• Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine sugar, water and rose essence and bring it to boil.
• Pour the hot syrup on the hot cake and set it aside.
• Add some dried rose petals on top of the cake.
• The cake will slowly absorb the syrup and when cool, the surface will be dry to touch.
• Cover the cake with cling film and let it sit for 3-4 hours or overnight.
• Cut along the lines. Remove from pan and serve.

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