Orange Upside-Down Semolina Cake (Vegan)
Who doesn’t love the look of an upside-down cake?
This semolina cake has that unique semolina mouth feel that entertains your tongue while all three permutations of citrus sparkle on your taste buds.
Inspired by the ambrosial slices of revani (greek semolina cake) found in tavernas across Greece. As a little girl I remember sitting down on a lemon blossom night to a slice so generous it was seemingly cut from the moon itself. Each rich forkful a play between burnt sugar, orange marmalade, and soothing vanilla.
“Gradually the magic of the island settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen.”
-Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals
The first time we rode the train from Athens to Denmark my mother sat us (her daughters) primly, properly, oh so Danishly on either side of her on the bench, in the railway compartment.
As the train pulled from the station a sound arose like the flapping of wings, the rustling of grasses, it was the greek matrons unwrapping a feast of wax paper swaddled food.
While our mother had carefully packed enough dry sandwiches to last us the journey, these grecian goddesses unpacked a bounty from their hand woven baskets. Whole mahogany chickens emerged, roasted lemony potatoes, oranges and watermelon materialized. Loaf upon loaf of fresh bread was torn or sliced and passed around.
Visitors came and went from the other compartments sharing food and laughter.
The train had become a village, a home and we as foreigners were their guests. They insisted we share in their well laid table.
Like the never ending silk scarves of a magician, no sooner had one course been cleared then another appeared, cakes, pastries, fruits, all was shared. Coffee and tea could be bought from your window at train stations and drunk while the train was at the platform.
[Telemachos] saw Athene and went straight to the forecourt, the heart within him scandalized that a guest should still be standing at the doors. He stood beside her and took her by the right hand, and relieved her of the bronze spear, and spoke to her and addressed her in winged words: ‘Welcome, stranger. You shall be entertained as a guest among us. Afterward, when you have tasted dinner, you shall tell us what your need is.’ ” -Homer, The Odyssey
A moist vegan Orange Semolina Upside-downcake that will have your friends swooning with each orangey bite. Inspired by the ambrosial slices of Revani (greek #semolina cake ) found in tavernas across Greece. #sunnysidehanne #vegancake #vegancakerecipe #greekvegan #mediterraneandiet #veganbakingrecipes #veganbaking #plantbasedrecipes #vegandesserts #upsidedowncake #aquafaba
Check out my new Aquafaba page! For tips, tricks and to see all of my Aquafabulous recipes.
A moist Orange Semolina Upside-down Cake that will have your friends swooning with each orangey bite.
- 3/4 cup vegan butter plus - 1 tbsp melted
- 1 1/2 cup coarse semolina flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 1/2 tsp cardamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup plain thick non-dairy yoghurt
- 1/4 cup aquafaba
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate
- 3-4 oranges
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp orange blossom water
- 1 tsp pomegranate molases
- 1/2 tbsp vegan butter
- 3 tbsp orange liqueur
-
Oil a 9 inch springform pan and heat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Slice your oranges into thin half rounds or full circles.
-
Place brown, white sugar, orange liquor, and pomegranate molasses into a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer. After simmering for 4-5 minutes add the butter and stir until incorporated. Remove from heat and stir in the orange blossom water.
-
Pour the caramel mixture evenly onto the bottom on the prepared pan. Arrange thinly sliced oranges in a pleasing concentric pattern at the bottom of the pan. (You'll not there are two differently patterned cakes photographed for this post.
-
Whisk semolina, sugar, baking powder, orange zest, cardamom, and salt in a medium bowl.
-
Whisk yogurt, orange juice concentrate, vanilla and aquafaba together into a large bowl. I just whisk in the orange concentrate frozen cause it melts and incorporates quite easily.
-
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until fully incorporated. Now stir in the melted butter.
-
Pour the batter over the sliced oranges into the prepared pan.
-
Bake 55–65 minutes until set. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Place a plate over top of pan, unlatch the springform hook, say a prayer cake and flip.
-
This cake keeps marvelously well tightly wrapped and placed in the fridge. I've kept it up t three days in the fridge and when I unwrapped it it was as moist as the day I made it.
[hidepins]
A moist vegan Orange Semolina Upside-downcake that will have your friends swooning with each orangey bite. Inspired by the ambrosial slices of Revani (greek #semolina cake ) found in tavernas across Greece. #sunnysidehanne #vegancake #vegancakerecipe #greekvegan #mediterraneandiet #veganbakingrecipes #veganbaking #plantbasedrecipes #vegandesserts #upsidedowncake #aquafaba
A moist vegan Orange Semolina Upside-downcake that will have your friends swooning with each orangey bite. Inspired by the ambrosial slices of Revani (greek #semolina cake ) found in tavernas across Greece. #sunnysidehanne #vegancake #vegancakerecipe #greekvegan #mediterraneandiet #veganbakingrecipes #veganbaking #plantbasedrecipes #vegandesserts #upsidedowncake #aquafaba
A moist vegan Orange Semolina Upside-downcake that will have your friends swooning with each orangey bite. Inspired by the ambrosial slices of Revani (greek #semolina cake ) found in tavernas across Greece. #sunnysidehanne #vegancake #vegancakerecipe #greekvegan #mediterraneandiet #veganbakingrecipes #veganbaking #plantbasedrecipes #vegandesserts #upsidedowncake #aquafaba
[/hidepins]
Jeweled citrus gleaming on a soft bed of semolina. Perfect with smokey caravan tea or a strong small coffee. One bite makes you feel like you’re sitting on mounds of colorful embroidered pillows on the floor of a sheik’s palace. A whole slice makes you feel as though you are the sheik yourself.
Swoon. Save few crumbs for your camel.
hey, what if i want to use eggs in this recepie, how much to use?
Hello Keren I have never tried this recipe with eggs. I’m sure you can find a similar recipe online that uses eggs if that is your groove.
I’m swooning just looking at the pictures
Aylam photo that means a great deal coming from you.
This my dear makes yesterday’s lemon drizzle that I made seem so very irrelevant. Love your writing style; I was there with you in the train compartment.
Oh you Brits with your fanciful dessert names. Lemon Drizzle. I googled it and now me wants a slice. Or two. Thank you babe.
The words you write as almost as delicious as I imagine the cake to be. Your crafting and telling of the story is sublime. (and if ya wanna send some cake my way, that would also be sublime, methinks)
Jaime, Thank you. You know I thought of sending some your way but then I worried that with you healing your super strong amazing body that you might resent cake. Now I know though…
Lucious…
Your recipes unfold like epic films before me.
Simply marvelous!
Oh you! Love you. and your little Peanut too.
An eye-popping cake that reclaims the color orange! I’d love to try to make this for my in-laws when they visit next month. What can I substitute for pomegranate molasses? In the cake part of the recipe, I can use vegan margerine for butter, right? How do I know if the aquafaba is reduced enough?
The pomegranate molasses just adds a sour-sweet touch to the caramel. It is pretty minor. You could add the same amount of any not too sweet jam. Like raspberry or cherry. You want to reduce the aquafaba from a can by say 25%. It will have a slightly gelatinous tacky texture like raw egg whites but slightly thinner. Vegan margarine is a fine substitution. Good luck!!
Thanks! One more newbie question: what kinds of canned beans have the best aquafaba? (I’m enamored of that word: it sounds like the name of a mad Roman emperor.) I’ll make two of these cakes at the same time: one to serve and eat and one to shellac and hang up on the wall (in lieu of the sun).
I prefer chickpeas. Deciding on a pattern is so much fun. Leigh is making hers with grapefruit for a pale design, I’ve made it with blood orange, navel and some small tangerine like citrus. All Hail! Aquafaba!
Oooh, those variations must look amazing. What about kumquats (as if I could ever find them where I live)? If I could use the words “kumquat” and “aquafaba” in the same sentence (other than this one!) I would be really chuffed.
Just to bring things back down to Earth … I appreciate the Durrell quotation in this post. My Family and Other Animals was one of the books we used to read aloud from at dinner (see comments to the previous post), as you remember. I tried to read passages of My Family and Other Animals aloud to your niece a while back but I was laughing so hard I couldn’t get the words out and the tears were streaming. I think that more than anything else I was remembering how funny it was when we first read it, at the old kitchen table. Your niece and your brother-in-law thought I was off my rocker. Which I was.
Luscious photos and descriptions that make me salivate!!!! Excuse me while I go shopping. Keep your stories, recipes and photos coming please. You warm my heart.
Alison Gold
When you mentioned Gerald Durrell I was smitten, but when you mentioned Greek mythology, I was completely bowled over!
I love your style of writing! Could almost smell the food being unwrapped in the train carriage!
Best,
Radhika
Radhika, You have no idea how much that means. I will keep that complement in my purse for those moments when I need it.
All the best Johanne
This is the cake version of a sunny lazy day. Sweet, sticky and delicous.
Only improved by having hair crunchy with salt water.
Hi Johanne,
I don’t have semolina flour, but am thinking of swapping it out for 0.5 cup AP flour and 1 cup cornmeal since the cake seems to have a consistency similar to cornbread. Any thoughts on if this is a “recipe for disaster”? 🙂
That sounds like a logical switch-out of ingredients. Polenta will make for a pretty color too. Please let me know how it goes. all the best Hanne
It worked great! I used 3/4 cup cornmeal and 3/4 cup AP flour. Cake was delicious and it has a good “wow” factor. Will definitely make it again. Thanks for sharing!
Huzzah! Great news. Thank you for getting back to me. If you are on Instagram you could tag me in a photo of it. Yay! -Johanne
Thank you for this inspiring recipe! I made this recently for my 43rd birthday. I treated myself to some new ingredients I had never used before – namely the semolina flour plus the pomegranate molasses and orange blossom water which I purchased from Amazon as a lovely flavor trio that also included rosewater! I am delighted to have since learned new ways to use those items from facial toners to culinary and mixology uses! The cakes (I made two) turned out excellent! This was the first time using aquafaba (I also joined the Facebook group you suggested!). I started out by reducing canned garbanzo bean aquafaba and cooking it only to find it was THINNER. I proceeded to open a new can and used the aquafaba straight from the can which worked out perfectly for the cakes. I will make this recipe again! Thank you!
I literally did a little happy dance when i read this comment. Happy Birthday! I’m glad I had a small part it your special day. It is wonderful to discover new ingredients. Pomegranate molasses is delicious in salad dressing, marinades and soups as well.
Thanks again, Johanne! I’m looking forward to using orange blossom water, rosewater, pomegranate molasses and aquafaba more in recipes and would be delighted to try any recipes you might share! 🙂
(Reduced the aquafaba and cooled it and it was thinner.)
Rating added
Can’t wait to try this!!! I take it that you mean 1/4 cup aquafaba and not 1/4 cup of kahlua in the cake mix. Been wanting to find a vegan citrus semolina cake for ages 🙂
Yes aquafaba! Freaking spell check corrects it in the oddest ways. Thanks for catching that. -Hanne
This is the only cake I want to have all the time! Sooo pretty to look at, fragrant, delicious, orangy, moist and light at the same tine – just perfect! Semi-coarse semolina works great here too. The cake is actually quite flexible and forgiving – smaller sugar amount, oil, semolina+regular flour mix, different fruits, some errors with amounts or ingredients etc. and everything works out just fine. I have a tricky oven which turns every baking attempt into some lucky/unlucky strike, but this cake comes out perfect every time. Thank you! Love your site!
Awww Laana, thank you for this review!!! It is lovely to hear that you are loving this recipe. Have a gorgeous day!
This is just beautiful! First off i really don’t like to bake but I just MUST make this cake! I must! I don’t even own a proper springform pan but I’ll be buying one. Im a bit of a health nut and I can not remember the last time I bought any sugar! Ha but I know this is the one! The one cake I will “splurge” on. The only cake i will even know how to bake and will love doing so. I’ll be so ever proud and make it again and again. As for your site itself well im.smitten with your writing I usually scroll past most blogs and jump to the recipe. However I quite enjoyed your lovely story and felt I was there with you and your sisters! I found you by searching for a feta recipe (which I’ll be trying out tomorrow my nuts are soaking tonight!) And I fell in love with your writing on that post and thus explored more and found this lovely cake which I Must make! Wish me luck (I really need it im a disaster of a baker but I love to cook) thank you for sharing your talents! Lots of love.
Oh Cristina! You kindness and ebullient enthusiasm have elevated an okay day to a day shimmering with joy! Thank you!
Got kinda confused with the vegan butter, should all of it be melted or just the tablespoon ?
The cake came out delicious great recipe !
Sorry about the confusion. I definitely need to clarify the recipe. I’m glad it worked out for you nevertheless.