Basbousa: Middle Eastern Mini Cakes

           I have previously raved about how much I love middle eastern recipes. The best part about these recipes is that they don’t use many synthetic products, sauces, array of weird food colors that we’re all fond of  using in our day to day life. I first had this little arabic cake, Basbousa on my very first  flight back from Saudia Arabia many years ago. Once I knew about it, I kept seeing it time and again, and not just in Saudi Arabia but other places as well. Needless to say that I love this, since I love all things sweet and moist. I also love savory. So, I guess I love everything that goes into the mouth. Except the things toddlers tend to pick up from the floor and eat( My youngest sister is famous for having put a baby cockroach in her mouth as a toddler,she probably would have chewed it  if my mom hadn’t seen this and forced her to spit the creature out . Personally, I think this just shows her food preferences.Once a cockroach,always a cockroach)

What You Need For The Cake

1 1/2 cup semolina flour

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup plain or Greek yogurt

1/2 cup finely shredded coconut

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

Almonds

For Syrup

On Medium heat add 1/2 cup water and 3/4 cup sugar, let it simmer until sugar dissolves.

Add 1 tbsp rosewater and 1 tsp lemon juice to the sugar syrup

How to go about it

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Flour and grease the baking pan.

Sift flour,baking powder and baking soda and sugar in one bowl

Whisk egg, butter,vanilla and yogurt in another

Beat all the ingredients together and fold in shredded coconut

Add the mixture to a baking pan

Sprinkle almonds on top

Set to bake.

Right after baking,add hot syrup over this.Let the cake absorb this.

After cooling cut the cake diagonally from left to right for diamond shaped mini cakes