One of the things I’m enjoying about writing this blog is how much I’m finding out as I do it. Not only am I learning from the research I do prior to writing but also from the feedback and questions people ask me after I’ve posted. Yesterdays example of this was when I learned that there are different grades of semolina. I’d shared a picture on Twitter of a lemon cake I’d baked and very quickly found myself in an exchange which finished up with me being asked what grade the semolina in the recipe was. I checked the packet and other than saying it was wholemeal there was no grade listed, the best I could offer was that it looked quite fine and powdery. It transpired the person who contacted me had made a semolina cake recently which they’d been very disappointed with and they were trying to work out why. All I can assume is some semolina is courser than other and and I can see how that could lead to a heavy and dry cake. Thankfully that definitely isn’t the case with this one as it manages to be light, sticky and tangy all in one mouthful.
If you do have semolina in your store cupboard at the moment this is a great cake to make as there is very little flour in it. Like many people my flour supplies are rapidly diminishing and the baking supply shelves in the supermarkets are still pretty barren. I did see a report on TV last week which said the mills were working flat out at the moment but my guess is that the baking trade is taking priority, with stocks for the domestic cook not their immediate concern. Until things change it’s going to be a case of looking for recipes like this one from Ruby Tandoh that help us eke out what we have.
Ingredients for the cake
- 125g Unsalted butter – softened
- 125g caster sugar
- 2 eggs – lightly beaten
- Zest & juice of 2 large or 3 smaller lemons*
- 100g semolina
- 60g plain flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 20g Icing sugar
Ingredients for the syrup
- 60g caster sugar
- Lemon juice
Method
- Pre heat the oven to gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm loose bottomed cake tin
- Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, lemon zest, semolina and a table spoon of the lemon juice and stir them in.
- In a separate bowl combine the flour baking powder and salt. Add the flour mix to the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
- Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin and bake for 25 minutes. A skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean when it is ready.
- While the cake is baking make the syrup by combining the sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan over a low heat. Let it bubble for a couple of minutes until the mixture thickens a little.
- A soon as the cake is ready use a fork or skewer to pierce the top before spooning the syrup over it. Let the cake cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack.
- To off set the lemon tang of the cake finish off with a light dusting of icing sugar over the top.
* This may look like more lemon juice than you need but trust me the cake can take it. The semolina soaks up the juice and the taste is wonderful.
David in the kitchen. 
This looks tasty too but the truth is I had to look up semolina. It says it’s a type of flour but maybe when you talk about flour not being in stock at the grocery, you mean the regular all -purpose flour? Anyway, I wonder if you could make it with just all plain flour? I had to look up caster sugar too and it says it’s a super fine sugar. What if you just used regular sugar? Do you think it would be a disaster?
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It gets really confusing because semolina never seems to be on the same shelf as other flour types in our stores. At the moment there is a flour shortage in the UK and i think many people are forgetting that semolina is one option they could use. I think that’s because we don’t often bake with it. I think you could make this cake with all-purpose flour but it probably wouldn’t be quite so soft..and I don’t see any problem with using regular sugar.
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