Basbousa Lemon Coconut Cake

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 eggs
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 125 g butter
• 200 g yogurt
• 200 g soft wheat semolina
• 75 g desiccated coconut
• 1 packet of baking powder

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 50 minutes

Bring the sugar syrup to a boil in a ratio of 1:2 and set aside. Bring the water, sugar, and lemon juice to a boil in a saucepan and reduce the heat to low for 5 minutes until all the sugar has dissolved. Don’t use bowls that are too large, as otherwise the batter will be too moist and won’t come out of the tin properly. Mix the eggs with the vanilla sugar. Add the melted butter and yogurt. Then add the semolina and finally the desiccated coconut with the baking powder, and mix everything well. Grease a closed dish, e.g. a glass casserole dish, and pour in the mixture. Smooth the surface. Tap the dish 1-2 times on the work surface to slightly firm up the batter. The batter should be about the thickness of a thumb in the dish. Bake on the middle rack of an oven preheated to 180°C (top/bottom heat) for about 25 minutes. When the edges are golden brown, transfer the pan to the second oven rack from the top to bake until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and pour the warm sugar syrup over the hot cake. You can use a toothpick to poke small holes in the batter to help distribute and absorb the sugar syrup. Let it rest for 1 hour before removing the cake from the pan and cutting it into small rectangles. The cake can be garnished with chopped pistachios.