semolina coconut and marmalade cake

semolina coconut and marmalade cake

• 19 Jul 2021

Just before we went into lockdown in Sydney, I borrowed the cookbook 'Jerusalem' by Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi from my local library. I photocopied a few recipes and returned the book whilst I still could.

This recipe for a semolina coconut and marmalade cake resonated with me for a number of reasons. We're deep into winter here so apart from apples and pears, citrus abounds in the fruit shop. The cake looked simple to make which also appealled to me. It's an Ottolenghi recipe so I knew it would be bursting with flavour and I had just about everything I needed to make the cake without a trip to the shops. I fished out the almost finished bottle of mandarin marmalade and the dregs of the blood orange marmalade and had just enough marmalade to make the cake.

 

The cake is quick to put together and because I decided to make the cake in a bundt tin, it only took 30 minutes to bake.

 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a small bundt cake (5 cup capacity). For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

 

Semolina, coconut and marmalade cake - adapted From Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi 

Ingredients

90ml sunflower oil

125ml orange juice 

80g orange marmalade (ideally fine-cut, without peel) 

2 eggs 

2 tsp grated orange zest 

35g caster sugar 

35g desiccated coconut 

45g plain flour 

pinch sea salt flakes

90g semolina 

1 tbsp ground almonds 

1 tsp baking powder 

thick Greek yoghurt, to serve 

 

Soaking syrup 

100g caster sugar 

1 tbsp water 

75mls orange juice 

 

Method 

Grease and flour a 5 cup bundt tin then place in the fridge. Preheat oven to 180ºC conventional. 

 

 

In a large jug, whisk together oil, orange juice, marmalade, eggs and orange zest until marmalade is dissolved. I used my stick blender for this step as my marmalade was a bit chunky. In a separate bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until all is well combined. The mixture should be runny. Pour the butter into the prepared tin. 

 

 

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 180ºC conventional, or until a skewer inserted in the top comes out clean and cake has turned an orangey-brown on top. 

 

Near the end of the baking time, place the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the orange juice and simmer for a minute then remove from the heat. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, pour over a few tablespoons of the syrup allowing it to fully absorb. 

 

After 10 minutes gently ease the cake from the tin and unmould onto a cooling rack. Use a pastry brush to brush the cake all over with the hot syrup. You'll need to do this in a few goes, sometimes waiting a minute or two before the syrup is absorbed. Make sure you use all the syrup.

When cool, slice thickly and serve with Greek yoghurt. I found some candied orange rind lurking in the fridge so I decorated the cake with a few strands.

 

I shared the cake with my neighbours and it received the thumbs up. I had a slice with a cup of tea and as expected it was delicious, redolent with coconut, orange and sticky with syrup.

 

See you all again very soon with some more cooking from my kitchen.

 

Bye for now,

 

Jillian