Tasty Orange Semolina cake

Moist Orange Rava Cake

This tasty orange semolina cake recipe is a keeper. Trust me. Make it in minutes, whipping the batter by hand. The flavour, texture, everything thing about this orange rava cake is so satisfying. Enjoy a thick slice with your cup of tea and you’ll see what I mean.

We’ll be using only natural orange juice and orange zest in this recipe. In other words, what we’ll bake is a moist orange rava cake with absolutely no artificial colours or flavours.

Ingredients

Maida (all-purpose flour) 80g (approx. ⅔ cup)

Rava (semolina) 110g (approx. ⅔ cup)

Butter 150g (approx. ⅔ cup)

Sugar 150g (approx. ¾ cup), roughly ground

Or 150g (approx. ¾ cup) fine castor sugar

Eggs 3

Baking powder 1 ½ tsp

Orange juice 120 ml (½ cup)

Orange zest 1 ½ tsp

1 tbsp yogurt + 1 tbsp water

Chopped almonds and pistachios for sprinkling on top of the cake

I used two small, thin-skinned Indian santras and 1 orange for extracting the orange juice.

With this batter you’ll be able to bake 1 cake and 2 cupcakes.

Procedure

1. Extract the juice from 2 regular oranges or 2 small santras and 1 thick-skinned orange, like I did, and strain it.
2. Grate around 1 ½ tsp of orange zest.
3. Add the orange juice to the semolina and set it aside to soak while you start preparing the batter.
4. Grease a round 7″ pan and line it with parchment paper.
5. Sift the all-purpose flour and the baking powder.
6. In a bowl, whip the butter till it’s light and fluffy. Add the coarsely ground or fine sugar to the bowl and cream it along with the butter.
7. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition so the mix is light and airy.
8. Add the soaked semolina and stir the contents of the bowl well, so you have a lump-free batter.
9. Using a spatula, fold in the flour in two parts.
10. Mix the yogurt and water and add this to the batter to give it a soft dropping consistency. Add a little more water if necessary. Finally, mix in the orange zest.
11. Fill 2/3 of the prepared baking pan and two small cupcake moulds (I used silicone moulds) with the batter. Sprinkle chopped nuts on the top of the cakes.
12. Bake the large cake at 180 C (350 F) for approx. 35 – 45 mins and the cupcakes at the same temperature for around 17 minutes.

Enjoy!