Lemon Yogurt Semolina Cake

With the temperatures in the upper 70's and the sun shining bright, it was time to get our grills out and have some friends over for a barbeque. I pulled out a cookbook with some recipes of Greek food to get a few ideas on kebabs for the barbeque party. While I was flipping through the book I stumbled upon this dessert cake. It called for a different ingredient "semolina" in place of our regular "all purpose flour". The picture in the book was so tempting that I had to try it out. It also reminded me of a similar wonderful semolina cake that my Mom bakes at home. I was lost in the past, thinking of the sweet smell of this cake which surrounded the entire house as it baked on a stove top....yeah, stove top. That's how Mom made this cake back then.

What excited me even more was that I had everything that the recipe required in my kitchen! That doesn't happen too often! I considered this as my lucky charm and put my apron on. 40 minutes later, this is what came out of my oven....

Ingredients:

For the Cake-

2 tbs unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tbs lemon rind
1 egg
1/4 cup fine semolina
1/4 cup ground almonds
1/4 cup black raisins
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 tbs plain yogurt

For the Syrup-

4 tbs sugar
2 tbs lemon juice, fresh
2tbs honey

Method:

1. Cream the sugar, butter and lemon rind with an electric beater until light and fluffy.
2. Crack the egg and beat into this mixture until well incorporated.
3. Lightly fold in the semolina, ground almonds, baking power, raisins and yogurt.
4. Line a 5 inch springform with parchment paper. Pour the mixture in it and bake at 350 deg F oven for 25-30 minutes. The cake is done when a tooth pick inserted at the center comes out clean. The top should turn golden brown.
5. Mix the ingredients for the syrup in a sauce pan. Heat it until the sugar melts but do not boil the mixture.
6. Drizzle the syrup on the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.
7. Cool the cake completely and cut into triangular pieces. Serves 2-3.

Serving:

What??? Just dig in..