Basbousa Cupcakes

This past Friday was the start of Ramadan.  For those of you that don't know, Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic lunar calendar.  For one month, people of the Muslim faith fast from sun up to sun down.  So why is this relevant?  No, I am not Muslim (I'm Catholic), but plenty of my husband's coworkers are, and I wanted to make a dessert to help them celebrate.  So I went online and researched Ramadan desserts.  I found a dessert called Basbousa.  Now, after some alterations, I turned this dessert into a cupcake (and thankfully it was well liked!).

Ingredients

For Cake:

1 cup of semolina

1 cup of flour

1 cup of sugar

Pictured without the almonds.

1 stick (or 1/2 a cup) of butter

1 cup of whole milk

1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

1/2 tsp of almond extract

1 tbsp of baking powder

1 tbsp of baking soda

Almonds

For Syrup:

2 1/4 cups of sugar

1 1/2 cups of water

Juice of one lemon

Honey

For Icing:

Heavy cream

Powdered sugar

Unflavored gelatin

Honey

Almonds

Directions

Prepare the syrup first by dissolving the sugar in the water.  Add your lemon juice and bring to a boil.  Once the syrup starts to boil, add your honey.  Reduce the heat and slowly boil for about 8 minutes.  Once finished, set aside.

For the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).  Mix together the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, mix together the semolina, flour, baking powder, and baking soda.  Add the butter/sugar mixture.  Then add your milk.  

Line your cupcake tin with liners.  Scoop your batter into the liners.  Push an almond slice into the top of each cupcake.  Bake for 19 minutes.  Once removed from oven, top each cupcake with the syrup.  Allow to cool the rest of the way.

In a bowl, mix one pint of whipping cream with 1/2 tsp of unflavored gelatin.  Let sit in the fridge for about 5 minutes.  Remove and begin to whip.  Add about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar (more or less if you'd like) to help sweeten the frosting.  Add 1 tbsp of honey to mixture as well.  Continue to whip until stiff peeks have formed.  The gelatin will help keep the frosting firm.  Top the cupcake with the frosting, and then top the frosting with the almond slices.

This recipe will yield approx. 24 cupcakes.  If you plan on making this, please remember that this dish is meant to be dense.  The semolina gives it a texture similar to cornbread.  Enjoy!

Copyright: This recipe is my own personal recipe that I created.  If you plan on using this recipe for reasons other than personal use, credit must be given accordingly.  Thank you.