We ate plenty of these beautiful cakes while travelling around Greece. I personally find them slightly too sweet & syrupy, and have adjusted the recipe accordingly.
Recipe based on:
http://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/ravani-greek-cake-with-syrup-and-almonds/
http://cookmegreek.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/coconut-ravani-coconut-semolina-cake.html
Greek Coconut Cake with Orange Syrup (Ravani)
We ate plenty of these beautiful cakes while travelling around Greece. I have adjusted the recipe to reduce the sweetness to my preference.
Ingredients
What you need:
- 23cm x 33cm pan
- 150 g butter at room tempurature
- 250 g caster sugar
- 4 eggs separated
- 200 g lukewarm milk
- 250 g self-raising cake flour or 245 g plain flour + 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 200 g desiccated coconut
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- zest of 2 oranges
For the syrup:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup orange juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170 C
- Line baking pan with baking paper
- Beat egg whites until shiny with stiff peak
- Cream butter + sugar + salt until light & fluffy. Gradually add egg yolks, one at a time, beating continuously
- Add milk + vanilla. Beat until well mixed.
- Add baking soda + dessicated coconut + flour + orange zest. Mix with spatula.
- Add in half egg whites. Fold gently until all incorporated.
- Add remaining half egg whites. Fold gently.
- Pour batter in the pan. Bake for 50-60 mins or until clean skewer inserted come out clean. Leave the cake to cool completely.
- When the cake is fully cool, cut them into squares
- Heat orange juice + sugar on medium heat and bring to boil. Boil for 10-15 mins until the syrup slightly thickens.
- Slowly ladle the HOT syrup over the COOL cake. Allow each ladle to absorb fully before adding more syrup.
