The wonderful thing about this recipe is that it is incredibly moist. It also looks stunning and is a real treat for dessert or even a decadent afternoon tea.
The fragrant rosemary syrup makes sure this orange cake stays incredibly moist and yet not overly heavy or rich.
For those of us who love desserts but prefer something not-too-sweet, you can’t go past a beautiful orange cake.
Looking for more citrus desserts?
Ingredients
Rosemary syrup
Method
Whole orange semolina cake with rosemary syrup
1.Place unpeeled oranges in a medium saucepan over high heat, cover with cold water; bring to the boil. Boil covered, 1 ½ hours or until oranges are tender; drain. Cool.
2.Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Grease a deep 22cm (9-inch) round cake pan; line base and side with baking paper.
3.Trim and discard ends from oranges. Halve oranges; discard seeds. Process orange, including rind, with baking powder until mixture is pulpy. Transfer to a large bowl.
4.Process eggs and sugar for 5 minutes or until thick and creamy. Stir egg mixture into orange mixture. Fold in semolina, ground almonds and rosemary. Spread mixture into pan.
5.Bake cake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand cake in pan for 45 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto a cake plate.
Rosemary syrup
6.Remove rind from one orange with a zester, into thin strips. Using a vegetable peeler, peel a long continuous strip of rind from remaining orange.
7.Place sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan over low heat; stir, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Add long strip of rind, bring to the boil; boil for 5 minutes or until syrup thickens.
8.Remove from heat; stir in liqueur, rosemary and thin strips of rind.
9.Spoon hot syrup over warm cake. Serve cake warm or at room temperature.
If you don’t have a zester, simply peel the rind into wide strips with a vegetable peeler, then cut them into thin strips. You could vary the flavourings in the syrup by adding either a cinnamon stick or a split vanilla bean instead of rosemary.
Note
