This scrumptious semolina eggless cake will soon become your favourite! You will love this light, healthy and moderately sweet cake flavoured with turmeric and anise. The simple ingredients will generally be available in your pantry, and you can easily substitute the pine nuts with sliced almonds or even sesame.
Sfouf makes the perfect sweet for your afternoon tea or morning coffee. And if you are a language teacher like me, who likes to spoil her students every now and then, you will often surprise your students with it after a long teaching session.
On a side note, you can substitute milk with aniseed water in the recipe to make it vegan.
Sahtein!

Ingredients
- 275 g fine semolina
- 100 g all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon ground aniseed
- 250 ml cold milk
- 200 g sugar
- 100 ml sunflower oil
- 30 g pine nuts
- 1 ¼ tablespoons tahini to grease the pan
Instructions
- Grease base and sides of a 26-cm round baking pan with the tahini.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, ground anise and turmeric over the medium-sized mixing bowl and combine in the semolina. Mix in the oil to get a kind of paste.
- In the small mixing bowl combine the milk and the sugar and stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Add gradually to the previous mixture and mix on low speed for one minute, then beat the mixture on high speed for 3-4 minutes until you have a smooth batter.
- Pour the batter into the greased pan and sprinkle all over with the pine nuts.
- Preheat oven (180°C, 350°F) and bake on lower second rack for about 20 minutes. Insert a wooden tooth pick into the centre of the cake to check if the cake is ready. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut into 3 to 4 cm squares and store in an airtight container. Sfouf keeps well for up to one week.
Should I use plain or self raising flour please?
I don’t think it matters. I, personally, work with plain flour unless a recipe mentions otherwise.
Thank you.
I noticed that I hadn’t mentioned type of flour in the recipe. I corrected it to all-purpose flour 🙂