Sweet
Aravanija
A semolina cake drenched in syrup. There is one rule: the cake cold, the syrup warm.
Recipe from Гордана Мишковска-Колева · Brampton, ON
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 40 min
- Total
- 1 hr 5 min
- Fasting
- Not suitable
Ingredients 8 ingredients
Method
- Whisk the 6 eggs with 6 tablespoons of lukewarm water and 12 tablespoons of sugar until pale and foaming.
- Add 5 tablespoons of flour and mix with a spoon, then 25 tablespoons of semolina and mix with a spoon again. Do not use a mixer at this stage — the semolina should only be moistened, not beaten.
- Add grated lemon zest for scent if you like. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes so the semolina drinks in the liquid.
- Pour into a greased tin and bake in a heated oven at 180 °C until a good yellow colour, about 35–40 minutes.
- When it has cooled, cut it into diamonds. Cut it cold, or it will tear.
- At the same time make a syrup from 1 kg sugar and 800 ml water. When the syrup is thick enough, set it aside to cool a little and add the juice of half a lemon or some vanilla if you wish.
- Pour the syrup over the aravanija. The cake should be cold and the syrup slightly warm — that is the difference between a cake that drinks the syrup and a cake that floats in it.
If you cannot find it
Substitutions that work outside Macedonia.
- Semolina
- Fine semolina from an Italian grocer — the same thing under another name.
- Sugar in the syrup
- Reduce to 700 g if you do not want it very sweet; the texture holds.
- Lemon zest
- Orange zest, or a teaspoon of rose water stirred into the cooled syrup.
