Egyptian Semolina Cake (بسبوسة)

This traditional Arabic semolina cake is baked until golden and drenched in a buttery orange syrup.

‘Basbousa’ is well-known throughout Arabic cuisine, found everywhere between Morocco and Iran. In its simplest form, it is a cake made with semolina - durum wheat - that is drenched in a light syrup after baking. Various styles and recipes have emerged throughout the centuries and nowadays many people have streamlined the preparation of basbousa so they can make it at home. Traditional bakeries would make a coarse semolina dough that required hours of resting to guarantee a perfectly tender texture. Today, many home cooks use a fine semolina and moistening ingredients like yoghurt and eggs to make a fast version that takes less than an hour to make. With that, basbousa now comes with varying flavours too. This particular recipe flavours basbousa with orange not only in its batter, but in its finishing syrup, which moistens the cake and keeps it toothsome for days and days. It’s really wonderful for teatime. Let’s go!