I am Inci Akinci and 48 years old. I am Turkish, and lived in Finland for 18 years. I have 2 adult children and my husband owns Pizzeria. In the past, I’ve done the cleaning work, and now I want to study a chef.

Turkey Istanbul is the only two continent in the world. Part of the city is geographically located in Europe and the other part in Asia. Between the Bosphorus, which connects the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea Turkey is a very large area of land. It is more than twice the size of Finland.

Revani has been a popular dessert with us Turks since the Ottoman Period; it is believed that the name Revani is given when the Ottomans conquered the city of Yerevan in today’s Armenia. Revani has many versions and been enjoyed in various cuisines especially in the Eastern Mediterranean countries, as well as in Turkey. I have seen the addition of rose water, orange flower water and orange zest to Revani, all sounds delicious.

Culinary information

Serves 6 – 8 and about 5€
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes for the cake and 15 minutes for the syrup

Ingredients

  • 165 gr/ 6oz / 1 cup fine grain semolina
  • 200gr/7oz/1 cup (not too full) sugar
  • 45ml/3 tbsp. plain flour
  • 5ml/1 tsp. baking powder
  • 225gr/8oz/1 cup plain (whole milk) yoghurt
  • 3 medium eggs
  • 60ml/ 4 tbsp. olive oil (regular or light)
  • 10ml/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • Zest of 1 lemon and Juice of ½ lemon

For the syrup:

  • 300gr/10.5oz/1 ½ cup sugar
  • 375ml/12 fl. oz. / 1 ½ cup water
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • Ground pistachio nuts and desiccated coconut to serve
  • Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4

Preperation

Step 1

First, make the syrup, as it needs to cool down. Combine the sugar and water in a medium saucepan (at a medium heat). Stir and bring the mixture to a boil. Once it boils, reduce the heat to low and let the syrup simmer for about 10 minutes, uncovered.

Step 2

Add the lemon juice, mix well and simmer for another 3 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the syrup cool down while you make the semolina cake.

Step 3

Grease a square or rectangular baking dish (mine was 20 cm x 27 cm – about 8”x 10”) with 2 tbsp. olive oil.

Step 4

First beat the eggs and the sugar in a large mixing bowl briskly for a few minutes, until the sugar dissolves. Then add the remaining 2 tbsp. olive oil, yoghurt, semolina, flour, the baking powder and beat well. Stir in the vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest and mix well until you have a smooth batter.

Step 5

Pour the batter into the greased baking dish and bake in the preheated oven for about 25 – 30 minutes, until the cake is golden brown. To check; insert a toothpick to the center of the cake, if it comes out clean, that means the cake is cooked. If not, bake for another 3-5 minutes.

Step 6

Using a large spoon, drizzle the cooled syrup all over the semolina cake. Let the cake absorb the syrup and cool down. Once cool, cut the revani in square or diamond shapes; you can serve revani with ground pistachio and desiccated coconut over the top like we do in Turkey.

Other aspects

Revani gets even better the next day and keeps well, covered, for a good few days. In Turkey, we enjoy revani with Turkish coffee or Cay, Turkish tea by the side.

Traditionally it is baked in a baking dish but If you would like to bake revani as cupcakes, make sure to grease each cupcake shell with olive oil and not to overfill. If you are using paper cupcake shells, I suggest you to have 2 paper shells stacked together to provide a firm base, so that the batter won’t spill.

In Turkey, we like to decorate Revani with ground pistachio and desiccated coconut. I hope you can try this delicious, moist revani, it makes any day special.