This is what I adore about our bazaars, especially in southern Kazakhstan: There are endlessly many syrup cakes, in all forms and with all flavors. No matter if fruity, milky or spicey, syrup cakes are always soft, moist and amazingly delicious.
This one is very fruity as I'm a freaky lemon-lover, and pretty milky as it contains ricotta cheese (which can be replaced by curd cheese or cream cheese, by the way). It's no wonder that everybody was amazed and wanted to have the recipe. While I was eating my first slice of cake I couldn't wait to reach for the next one, and I was not the only person that couldn't stop eating. But try it yourself! No regrets! :)
Lemon Syrup Cake
Batter
250gm ricotta cheese (or use curd cheese, chream cheese or crème fraîche)
1/2 cup homemade vanilla sugar
1 cup sugar
a pinch of salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups semolina
3 tsp baking powder
zest of 1 large lemon
Preheat oven to 175C. Cream together eggs and sugar using a mixer on high speed (for about 2 minutes).
Beat in oil, ricotta cheese, salt and lemon zest.
In another bowl combine flour, semolina and baking powder. Sieve over the wet mixture, and quickly beat in, just until incorporated.
Butter a bundt pan and dust it with some flour.
Fill the batter into the buttered and dusted pan and bake for about 60 minutes.
Let cool and remove from pan.
Syrup
juice of 1 large lemon
1/2 cup sugar
about 1/4 cup water
Put the ingredients into a small sauce pan and bring to a boil while stiring. Let the syrup boil for about 2 minutes until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is slightly thicker, then remove from heat.
Cut the cooled cake on the surface area using a small toothpick, until you have some tiny holes in the cake.
Slowly pour the hot syrup over the cooled cake using a teaspoon until the syrup mixture is used up. Let soak for a while at room temperature, then place the cake into fridge for a few hours.
Enjoy :)
Optional:
For the White Chocolate Topping, grate about 20 - 30 gm of white chocolate and sprinkle the top of the cake.
Gulchathaii
