Yum! Yum! Yum!

Babousa is a Semolina Sweet Cake made with routine ingredients like Sooji Rava, Coconut Powder etc, but gets soaked in rosy sugary syrup to stand out as Unique Dish both in texture and taste. This sweet is very soft, little flaky, not too sweet but melts in mouth. The ingredients used this recipe are also very light makes it little healthy compare to other traditional cakes. As name states it is not truly a Cake and not truly a Sweet, it is definitely mixture of both hence the 'Sweet Cake' name is apt, and this is very tasty and light.



Basbousa is a pretty popular in Egyptian Cuisines and famous in Middle Eastern Countries.  There are several variations in this cake as it can be made differently in several regions from Egypt to Middle Eastern to Turkey. It's known with several  names as well, Basbousa, Basboosa, Revani. This is also pretty popular in Arabic Countries and known as Traditional Arabic Sweet called as Revani.

As this cake is not too sweet and light this will be good to serve as afternoon snack along with Tea or Coffee or this will be a Special Supper Snack after dinner. When ever you serve, once you taste you will be hooked on to this and you won't stop eating with just one ;-). Usually the Arabic Sweets are very delicious but most of the recipes are very complicated and hard to make. But on the contrast, this recipe is simple and easy to make with limited handy ingredients.  What are you waiting for, Here is the recipe, Go For It! :-)

Ingredients:
Sooji Rava / Semolina - 1 1/2 cup
Coconut Powder - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Butter - 1/2 cup ( 1 stick)
Milk - 1 cup
Egg - 1
Almond Extract - 1 tsp ( or you can use Vanilla Extract)
Almonds - for decoration ( optional) ( or you can use flakes)

For Syrup:
Sugar - 1 Cup
Water - 1 Cup
Lemon Juice - 2 Tbsp
Rose Water - 1 Tbsp

Syrup Preparation:

1. Combine 1 cup of sugar and water in a stock pot. Wait for 5 min, until some sugar dissolves into water. 
2. Now start boiling ( on medium heat) the water with sugar for 10 min, until the syrup consistency comes. You should get slight stickiness, that's the indication for right consistency. 
3. Add 2 Tbsp of lemon juice and reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. 
4. Finally add 1 Tbsp Rose Water and simmer for another 1 minute and take it off from the heat and let is cool down completely.

Cake Preparation:

1. Mix all Dry ingredients, Semolina, Coconut Powder, Sugar, Baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a bowl, add beaten egg and milk, vanilla extract and mix it very well. Now pour this mixture into Dry ingredients bowl and mix well together. 
3. Brush the 8*11 Baking Pan with some oil and pour the mixture into Bakign Dish. Bake this at 350 F for 20 minutes.
4. Take it out and make diamond slits with a knife and place the almond on each piece. Now keep this back in the Oven and bale for another 20 minutes ( or until the edges turn to brown).
5. After the second time baking is done take the Baking Pan out and let it cool on the counter top.

• If you want Eggless Version you can replace 1 Cup milk + 1 Egg  with 1 Cup Yogurt.
• If you want golden color on top, after second time baking you can broil for 2 to 3 minutes, that turns the top to golden color which gives roasted effect.
• Once the Cake is baking in the Oven, start making sugar syrup that saves some time.
• Lemon Juice and Rose Water will give nice aroma to the syrup, giving a nice taste to this cake. You can replace Lemon Juice with Orange Juice or Extract as a variation. 
• These lasted for 5 days at room temperature ( outside on the counter top), store up to 10 days when stored in refrigerator. 
• Today as I don't have Whole Almonds, I have decorated with Almond flakes!

Hope you liked this Soft and Sweet Cake for Today!

Will be back with another great International Recipe, Until then take care!
-Mythreyi