Turkish Revani | Semolina Cake in Lemon Syrup

This Turkish Middle Eastern semolina cake dessert gets its flavor from fresh lemon juice and zest. Revani (Basbousa, Sambali) is an easy sponge cake that bakes up quickly and absorbs a delightful lemony sugar syrup. Make your Turkish delight fancy with a star pattern and almond slivers.

How to make Revani

Revani is made in four basic steps and bakes up in only 35 minutes. It is a very easy cake to make and perfect for the beginner baker.

First mix cake ingredients in a bowl and pour into pan. Let rest for one hour. Next cut a pattern into cake, decorate with almonds. Then bake in oven. Pour syrup over cake.

Serve with optional creme fraiche or whipped cream.

Revani syrup flavors

The syrup that flavors the revani varies. The most common flavors are lemon, orange and rose.

This recipe calls for the zest and juice of one lemon but you can make an orange flavored cake by using the zest and juice of an orange or use orange water. Rose water is a common pantry item in Middle Eastern pantrys and can be used in this recipe instead of lemon or oranges. I think making a vanilla cake with some saffron would be amazing.

If you make this cake, let us know which variation you made and how you liked it by leaving a comment below.

Optional additions

You don’t have to use almonds, you can use other nuts instead like pine nuts, peanuts and walnuts.

I have never seen berries used but I think a strawberry or blueberry slurry would be wonderful. You would have to replace the milk with it. That might take some experimenting. If you choose to do this, I would make a traditional cake first so that you can get a feel for how thick the batter should be then you can adjust when you make a berry version.

Update

I made a Blueberry and Lemon Revani and it was delicious. The blueberries made pretty speckles in the cake and I paired it with the lemon flavors. Think of this cake as a Summer Revani.

I also made an apple pie version of Revani, somebody needs to stop me. The Apple and Cinnamon Revani uses traditional apple pie spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. The syrup is made from apple juice, sugar and fresh ginger. This western version is just as easy as the original Revani. If you make your own version, share in the comments below and let us know what you did.

Other names for Revani

Probably due to regional migration, traditional recipes spread throughout the Middle East but may be known by other names. Revani is no exception.

Below are the other names for Revani or at least names of cakes that are very similar. If you have any insight to this, please leave a comment below so that we all may learn. Thanks in advance!

• Basbousa – Arabic
• Shamali – Armenian
• Revani Tarifi – Persian, Greek, Turkish
• Nammoura – Lebanese
• Pastusha – Kuwait
• Sambali – Turkish

Basically, the Middle East loves semolina cake soaked in flavored sugar syrup. So if you are traveling and you see something like this, rest assured it’s going to be good no matter what they are calling it.

How to Make Revani Step-by-Step

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