Desserts

Rhubarb and Cardamom Upside-down Semolina Cake

FusionUnder 30Vegetarian

Rhubarb is in season and I just couldn’t resist! I wanted to make something easy, simple and fun for you to make at home. Something that would allow the rhubarb to stand out. As I come to the end of ramadan and having eaten a lot of basbousa – a Middle Eastern semolina cake that is dowsed in loads of syrup, I decided that recreating in a lighter, fluffy way would be perfect. So here we have a Rhubarb Upside-down cake spiced with cardamom and topped with some roasted rhubarb & Orange syrup.

 

Cooking notes:

 

  • The extra roasted rhubarb with orange syrup is not needed, however when I carefully aligned the rhubarb at the bottom of the pan and cooked them with the batter – they sunk in and the colour disappeared and I didn’t get that beautiful geometric print you see on google, so I needed the extra rhubarb for aesthetics!

  • Ideally use fine semolina and not coarse. But if you can’t source then you can grind down the coarse one.

Ingredients:

Cake Ingredients
Topping Ingredients

Method:

1

Begin by heating your oven to 190°c.

2

Line and grease an 8 inch round baking tin.

3

Cream your butter and sugar together in a stand mixer or with a handheld whisk till pale and smooth.

4

Add eggs and yoghurt to the butter and whisk to incorporate. Don’t worry if it looks scrambled that will change when dry ingredients are added.

5

Add in the rest of the cake ingredients, except the rhubarb and beat till smooth.

6

Cut your rhubarb to the shape or style you want them in and then lay them pink side down in the cake tin.

7

Sprinkle over some sugar and then pour over the cake batter and place in the oven. Reduce the temperature to 180°C and cook for 30mins then check the cake – place back in the oven at 170°C for a further 30mins, took cook all the way through. Please do check regularly as every oven is different!