Carob molasses & pumpkin turmeric cake with tahini caramel sauce
Behold the vegan carob molasses & pumpkin Bundt cake with tahini caramel sauce. This cake was heavily inspired by the very famous Lebanese semolina cake called “sfouf” that we prepare with two flavors carob molasses or turmeric.
Servings 12slices
Prep Time 30 minutesmins
Cook Time 50 minutesmins
Ingredients
For the pumpkin turmeric batter:
1 ½cupsemolina flour
1 ½cupall-purpose or cake flour
1 ½tspbaking powder
2tbspturmeric powder
½cupolive oilsee notes
1tsprose water
1tsporange blossom water
½tspmasticagrounded
¾cupcane sugar
300gpumpkin pureesee notes
3/4cupwater
For the carob molasses batter:
1 ½cupsemolina flour
1 ½cupall-purpose or cake flour
1 ½tspbaking powder
2tspanise powder
½cupneutral vegetable oil
1cupcarob molasses
¾cupwater
for the tahini caramel sauce (not vegan) see notes for the vegan version:
1/3cuphoney
¼cuptahini
3tbspolive oil
½tspsea salt
Extra tahini for brushing the Bundt pan
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 180 C° and grease your Bundt pan with tahini. Set aside.
For the pumpkin turmeric batter:
In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients (semolina, flour, baking powder, turmeric)
Mix in another bowl the wet ingredients (olive oil, rose water, orange water, mastica, sugar, pumpkin, water) until the sugar is fully dissolved.
Combine the wet and dry mixture together and mix until smooth and fully mixed.
Set aside to prepare the carob molasses batter.
For the carob molasses batter:
In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients (semolina, flour, baking powder, anise powder)
Min in another bowl the wet ingredients (oil, carob molasses, water) until the molasses is fully dissolved.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until smooth and fully mixed.
Assemble and bake:
Spoon half of the pumpkin turmeric batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Pour over the carob molasses batter over top. Finish by spooning the remaining pumpkin turmeric batter over the carob molasses batter. Using a butter knife, swirl the batters together with a zig-zag motion, going three times around the pan.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted in the cake come out clean.
Making the tahini caramel:
While the cake is baking, prepare the caramel sauce.
In a small pan on low heat: mix tahini, honey and oil, and salt. Keep stirring until bubbles start to show up and the sauce starts to thicken a little. Remove from heat and set aside until the cake is done baking.
Assembly:
Once the cake is done baking. Allow it to cool in the baking pan for 2 hours. After that invert the cake into a wire rack or serving plate and drizzle with salted caramel if it is completely cooled down. Or wait a little bit until cool before drizzling the caramel sauce.
Serve with some Arabic bouza (ice cream) and enjoy!
Notes
The oil used in the recipe: I like to use a mix of vegetable oil. Between olive oil and a neutral oil like canola or sunflower. You can use only neutral vegetable oil for the two batters instead of using olive oil for the pumpkin batter and neutral for the carob molasses. But if you want to use olive oil make sure you only use as noted in the recipe don’t substitute the whole oil quantity for olive oil the taste will be too intense for the recipe and will change the overall taste.
Pumpkin puree: I used homemade pumpkin puree for the recipe. You can use a canned one. And if you don’t have pumpkin and still want to make this recipe you can omit the pumpkin and just add ¼ cup more water.
For the tahini caramel sauce: I like to use honey for this caramel sauce but if you want to keep the sauce vegan with the vegan cake, just substitute the honey with maple syrup or any other vegan syrup.
Semolina: you can use coarse semolina or fine semolina but don’t replace the semolina with more all-purpose flour, it won’t yield the best results
Storage: you can store this cake for 7 days at room temperature in an airtight container or for about 10 days in the fridge.
Ingredients sourcing: you can find some Lebanese-specific items like semolina, carob molasses, tahini, mastica, and rose water and orange water at the middle eastern markets, natural-foods stores, and even in large supermarkets or online often located with other middle eastern ingredients.