Semolina Spiced Mini Cakes
Recently I have been playing a lot with syrups for cakes, which has resulted in quite some playing with a variation of spices and essence (some I am familiar with and some not so much).
One of the syrups I made up was so amazing that I decided to create a cake purely based on the key spices and essence.
After thinking about what cake foundations would best hold and complement my new favourite spices and essences I ended up deciding on a semolina (almost polenta) cake.
It did take me 3 tries to get to this final recipe:
Attempt 1 – was to produce a thin syrup, which just overtook the cake and flooded it.
Attempt 2 – was to make the syrup more of a caramel consistency, almost to a praline level. This just didn’t suit the cake, it needed to have an ‘icing’ element that would work with the strong spices and tone down the sickly sweetness.
Attempt 3 –I gave up on the syrup idea and decided that this cake would be best eaten with ice-cream and cream as it would work wonders with the strong moist richness of the cake. Therefore whipped up some cream and success!
Ingredients:
Cake:
- 1 cup sugar
- 180g butter
- 1 tsn vanilla
- 1 tsn cinnamon
- 1 tsn cardamom
- ½ tsn star anise
- 6 threads of saffron
- ½ tsn rosewater essence
- 240g natural yoghurt
- 1 cup semolina
- ½ cup self raising flour
- ½ tsn baking powder
Topping:
- 300g cream
- 2 + ½ tbsn icing sugar
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180c degrees and fill 2 x 12 cupcake tin trays with cupcake liners/cases.
- Using electric beaters beat the butter, sugar, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, rosewater, saffron diced and star anise until light and fluffy.
- Add the yoghurt, semolina, flour and baking powder and beat until the mix is just combine.
- Spoon the mix into the 24 cupcake patties.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove the cakes from the tin and place on a cooling tray until cold.
- Meanwhile to make the topping whip the cream and sugar in a bowl with electric beaters until peaks form.
- Using a piping bag and star nozzle pipe the cream on the top of the cold cake.
- Remove the cakes from the patty cases and sprinkle with a little cinnamon on top.
Notes:
- I have decorated the cakes with a sugar almond on top.
Step 2
Step 4
Step 8
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