RECIPE: With afternoon tea or wine after work, semolina cake hits spot
In my not very humble opinion, tea cakes are the best kind of cake. Simple, flavorful, and easy to throw together, they occupy a special category in the cake world: the snacking cake. Not quite rich enough for a birthday celebration, but still rustically impressive, snacking cakes are made for pairing with afternoon tea, or coffee, or even with a glass of wine after work.
This semolina cake leans into a few of my favorite flavor profiles — citrus and pistachios — and results in a fragrant, not too sweet, but very fulfilling afternoon treat. Feel free to get creative with whatever citrus you might have handy and even combine different fruits — grapefruit and lemon zest, for example, are an excellent combination.
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup semolina flour
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- Zest of 2 oranges
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup orange juice
- 2 cups olive oil
- Pistachio Glaze
- 1/3 cup chopped pistachios, toasted, for glaze, plus another 1/4 cup for garnish
- 2/3 cup whole milk
- 1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees, prepare a Bundt pan with cooking spray or rub well with butter and dust with flour.
- Measure and sift all dry ingredients — all-purpose flour, semolina flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Combine and set aside.
- Combine the sugar and orange zest, rubbing the mixture until the sugar is fragrant. Add to dry ingredients.
- Whisk together eggs, orange juice and olive oil until combined.
- Whisking continuously, add the combined dry ingredients into the wet. Whisk together until batter is smooth. If you see “lumps” of anything here, keep whisking. In baking, lumps are never a good thing.
- Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a cake tester or toothpick in the middle of the cake. If that comes out clean — no batter, but a crumb or two on the tester is OK — then you’re done. If it seems like it needs more time, add another 3 minutes and check again. The cake will be extraordinarily fragrant.
- While the cake is baking, gently heat milk and toasted pistachios for the glaze in a small saucepan, 3-5 minutes, until the milk just starts to simmer. Once you see small bubbles appear, remove the milk from heat, and cool the mixture, 10-15 minutes.
- Once cool, strain the pistachios out of the milk, and add sifted confectioners’ sugar, and whisk together until your mixture is thick, but still pourable. If you run a spoon through the glaze, it should lazily come back together.
- When finished baking, de-pan the cake, and allow to cool.
- When the cake is fully cooled — not “mostly cooled” or “close enough,” but fully cooled — pour the glaze over the cake, allowing the glaze to run lazily down the sides. Top with some chopped toasted pistachios and serve. Makes 8 slices.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per slice: 730 calories (percent of calories from fat, 75), 9 grams protein, 38 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 62 grams total fat (9 grams saturated), 70 milligrams cholesterol, 211 milligrams sodium.Chris Wilkins has been a professional baker for 12 years. He is a two-time James Beard Award nominee and the founder and co-owner of Root Baking Co. and Pizza Jeans. Submit your baking questions to bakebetterajc@gmail.com.
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