The cake in your photo looks most like a Lebanese/Middle Eastern semolina turmeric cake called Sfouf: golden-yellow inside, deeply browned on top, and baked in a shallow dish. Traditional sfouf uses semolina, turmeric, oil, milk, sugar and often pine nuts or almonds.
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Feel Good Foodie
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The version below is adapted specifically to give you the thick, golden, oval-dish appearance shown in your photo. It is not a syrup-soaked basbousa.
Recipe at a glance
Prep: 15 minutes
Rest: 10 minutes
Bake: 35–45 minutes
Total: about 1 hour
Yield: 8–12 pieces
Oven: 350°F / 175°C
Pan: approximately 9–10 inch oval baking dish
Texture: moist, slightly dense, fine/grainy from semolina
Flavor: mildly sweet, buttery/nutty if tahini is used, aromatic turmeric
Egg-free: Yes
Optional nuts: Yes
Syrup: No
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
Ingredient Amount
Fine semolina 1½ cups / about 240 g
All-purpose flour ½ cup / about 60 g
Granulated sugar ¾ cup / 150 g
Ground turmeric 1–2 teaspoons
Baking powder 1½ teaspoons
Salt ¼ teaspoon
Ground cardamom ½ teaspoon
Ground anise ¼ teaspoon, optional
Fine semolina is preferable for a smoother cake, although a mixture of fine and slightly coarse semolina can give a more rustic texture.
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Wet ingredients
½ cup / 120 ml neutral oil — sunflower, canola or vegetable oil
1 cup / 240 ml whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange blossom water, optional
1 teaspoon orange or lemon zest, optional
For the baking dish
1–2 tablespoons tahini
Tahini is traditional in sfouf and gives the bottom and edges a subtle sesame/nutty flavor.
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Williams Sonoma
Optional topping
Choose one:
¼ cup pine nuts
¼ cup blanched almonds
Slivered almonds
Sesame seeds
A mixture of pine nuts and almonds
Traditional versions commonly use pine nuts or almonds on top.
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Feel Good Foodie
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Full step-by-step method
1. Preheat the oven
Heat oven to:
350°F / 175°C
Place the rack in the center of the oven.
If your oven tends to brown cakes quickly, use 340°F / 170°C.
2. Prepare the oval dish
Brush the entire inside of your baking dish generously with tahini.
Don’t worry if it looks unusual—the tahini helps prevent sticking and contributes a delicious toasted flavor.
If you don’t have tahini, use:
butter
ghee
neutral oil
Tahini is the traditional choice, however.
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Williams Sonoma
3. Mix the dry ingredients
In a large bowl combine:
240 g fine semolina
60 g all-purpose flour
150 g sugar
1–2 tsp turmeric
1½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp anise, if using
Whisk thoroughly.
Important
Break up any lumps of turmeric and baking powder.
4. Mix the wet ingredients
In another bowl combine:
120 ml oil
240 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla
orange blossom water, if using
citrus zest, if using
Whisk until combined.
5. Combine
Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
Stir with a spatula or wooden spoon.
Do not aggressively beat the batter.
You want a batter that is:
thick
smooth
moist
easily spreadable
It should be considerably thicker than ordinary cake batter.
6. Let the batter rest
This step is important.
Leave the batter for approximately 10 minutes.
The semolina absorbs some of the liquid during this time, which improves the final texture. Resting semolina batter is also recommended in other semolina cake preparations.
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Make It Mediterranean
After resting, stir once.
If it has become extremely stiff, add 1–2 tablespoons milk.
7. Transfer to the dish
Pour the batter into the tahini-coated oval dish.
Use the back of a spoon or spatula to spread it evenly.
Try to keep the thickness relatively uniform.
For the appearance in your photograph:
Don’t make the cake extremely thin.
Aim for approximately 1½–2 inches / 4–5 cm of batter, depending on the dimensions of your dish.
8. Add the nuts
If using nuts, gently press:
almonds
pine nuts
or slivered almonds
into the surface.
You can also make a decorative pattern.
For a completely nut-free version, simply omit them.
Important: tahini is made from sesame, which is a major allergen but is not a tree nut. So a recipe can be tree-nut-free while still containing sesame.
9. Optional scoring
For traditional square/diamond pieces, lightly score the surface with a knife before baking.
For the oval cake shown in your photograph, you can simply leave the top whole.
The photographed style looks especially attractive when left uncut until serving.
10. Bake
Place the dish in the center of the preheated oven.
Bake approximately:
35–45 minutes at 350°F / 175°C
Start checking at 35 minutes.
You’re looking for:
deep golden-brown surface
slightly darker edges
cake pulling very slightly away from the dish
center that feels set
toothpick coming out clean or with a few moist crumbs
Traditional sfouf recipes commonly bake around 30–35 minutes, while a deeper dish can require additional time.
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Feel Good Foodie
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Getting the beautiful brown top
The photograph has a particularly attractive deeply browned surface.
If the cake is cooked through but the top isn’t brown enough:
Move it slightly higher in the oven.
Turn on the broiler/grill.
Brown for 30–90 seconds.
Watch continuously.
Do not walk away. Turmeric-colored cakes can go from golden to burnt very quickly.
11. Cool
Remove from the oven.
Let it sit in the dish for approximately 15–20 minutes.
Then either:
serve warm, or
allow it to cool completely.
Unlike basbousa, you do not need to pour sugar syrup over this version.
How to serve
Serve plain with:
Arabic coffee
Turkish coffee
black tea
mint tea
chai
You can also dust the cooled cake very lightly with powdered sugar, although traditionally the golden turmeric color is allowed to speak for itself.
ALL NUT & ALLERGEN INFORMATION
Does it contain nuts?
Not necessarily.
The base recipe contains no tree nuts.
However, traditional sfouf may be decorated with:
pine nuts
almonds
so check the ingredients if buying prepared semolina cake.
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Feel Good Foodie
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Does tahini contain nuts?
No.
Tahini is ground sesame seed, not a tree nut.
However, sesame is a major food allergen, so someone with sesame allergy should not eat the tahini version.
Nut-free version
For a tree-nut-free cake:
omit almonds
omit pine nuts
use tahini only if sesame is safe
check semolina/flour packaging for cross-contamination warnings
Sesame-free version
Replace tahini used for greasing with:
neutral oil, or
butter/ghee if dairy is acceptable.
Gluten-free?
No. This recipe contains wheat semolina and wheat flour.
For gluten-free baking, you would need a tested gluten-free formulation rather than simply substituting flour 1:1.
Dairy-free?
Yes, easily.
Replace milk with:
unsweetened oat milk
almond milk (not suitable for nut-free diets)
soy milk
coconut milk
Use oil rather than butter.
The classic sfouf style is often made without eggs or butter.
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Feel Good Foodie
Egg-free?
Yes.
This version contains no eggs.
Approximate nutrition
For 10 pieces, assuming the cake is made with oil and without nuts:
Nutrient Approx. per piece
Calories 250–280 kcal
Carbohydrates 38–42 g
Protein 4–5 g
Fat 10–12 g
Saturated fat 1–2 g
Fiber 1–2 g
Sugar 14–17 g
Sodium 100–150 mg
These are estimates and will change according to the exact semolina, oil, milk, sugar and serving size.
Adding almonds or pine nuts increases calories, fat, protein and fiber.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Can I use coarse semolina?
Yes, but the cake will have a more pronounced, slightly grainy texture.
For the softest version, use fine semolina. Some sfouf recipes use fine semolina while others allow fine/coarse mixtures.
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Feel Good Foodie
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Q2. Why is my cake not yellow enough?
The main reason is usually the turmeric.
Use good-quality fresh ground turmeric. Start with 1 teaspoon for a mild color or use 1½–2 teaspoons for the vivid yellow appearance.
Don’t add enormous amounts—too much turmeric can make the cake bitter.
Q3. Can I add more turmeric?
Yes, but I recommend keeping it around 2 teaspoons maximum for this quantity.
The purpose is primarily color and gentle flavor.
Q4. Why is my cake dry?
Common causes are:
too much flour
too much semolina
overbaking
insufficient milk
using a very large shallow pan
Measure flour and semolina accurately, preferably by weight.
Q5. Why is the middle still wet?
Your dish may be deeper than the one used for a standard sfouf.
Bake another 5–10 minutes, checking every few minutes.
If the top is already dark, loosely cover it with foil while the center finishes.
Q6. Can I use butter instead of oil?
Yes.
Use approximately ½ cup / 115 g melted butter.
The result will be richer and more buttery.
Q7. Can I use ghee?
Absolutely. Ghee works particularly well with Middle Eastern semolina cakes.
Q8. Can I use yogurt?
Yes, but it changes the recipe toward a basbousa/semolina-yogurt cake rather than the lighter sfouf style.
Basbousa commonly uses yogurt and is traditionally soaked with sugar syrup, whereas sfouf is typically a turmeric-colored semolina cake without syrup.
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Ashley Pardo
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Q9. Should I add sugar syrup?
Not for this particular photo-style recipe.
If you want a moist, syrup-soaked dessert, you’re moving toward basbousa/namoura/hareeseh. Those cakes are deliberately soaked with sugar syrup after baking.
A
Ashley Pardo
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Q10. Can I make this without tahini?
Yes.
Grease the dish with oil, butter or ghee.
Q11. Can I add coconut?
Yes. Add approximately ½ cup unsweetened desiccated coconut.
It will make the cake more similar to some basbousa-style recipes.
Q12. Can I add orange blossom water?
Yes. 1 tablespoon gives a lovely Middle Eastern aroma.
You can also use rose water, but use it sparingly because its flavor is strong.
Q13. Can I use brown sugar?
Yes, but the cake will be darker and have a more caramel-like flavor.
White granulated sugar gives the bright yellow appearance seen in your photograph.
Q14. How do I get the crispy edges?
Use a metal or glass dish with a reasonably thin layer of batter, generously grease the dish, and bake until the edges are deeply golden.
Tahini-coated edges are particularly flavorful.
Q15. How do I store it?
Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for approximately 2 days, or refrigerate for up to 4–5 days.
Bring refrigerated cake toward room temperature before serving for the best texture.
Q16. Can I freeze it?
Yes.
Cut into portions, wrap well and freeze for up to approximately 2–3 months.
Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
My recommended version for the exact look
For the closest result to your photograph, I’d use:
1½ cups fine semolina + ½ cup flour + ¾ cup sugar + 1½ tsp turmeric + 1½ tsp baking powder + ½ cup oil + 1 cup whole milk + cardamom + vanilla + tahini-coated oval glass dish.
Leave off the nuts and syrup, bake until the top is deep golden brown, and give it a very brief broil at the end if necessary.
That combination should give you the bright yellow center, browned crust and dense-but-tender semolina texture characteristic of sfouf.
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Feel Good Foodie
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With years of experience in restaurant research and local SEO, Sara creates accurate, user-friendly guides that work for both people and search engines. Her goal is to help users go from search results to their nearest restaurant or menu choice with as few clicks as possible.
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