Basbousa

• Heat milk and butter – do not let the butter burn. Add sugar and dissolve, stirring regularly. Allow to cool.
  250 grams unsalted butter, 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar
• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced).
• Grease large rectangular baking dish with ghee or butter.
• Measure semolina and flour, and select almonds you will use so that you can work quickly later. Working slowly will result in a mixture thickening and later not spreading evenly during cooking.
  2 cups coarse semolina, 1 cup self-raising flour, 35 blanched almonds
• Add semolina and flour to the cooled butter, sugar and milk mixture, stir well and pour straight into the dish.
• Decorate with almonds (either 24 ie 6 x 4 or 35 ie 7 x 5 depending on your preferred serving size) so that each square serving (after it has been cooked and cut into slices) has one almond in the middle.
• Bake for around 50 minutes or until golden brown. Prepare syrup while the cake is in the oven.
• Immediately after taking the cake out of the oven pour the syrup (near boiling point) over the cake gradually and evenly. Cover with a glass chopping board or similar non-absorbent firm board. Leave untouched overnight or until completely cooled.

Syrup

• Add sugar to water over high heat until sugar has dissolved. Boil for 3 minutes then add lemon juice (no pulp). Continue to boil for another few minutes until syrup is slightly thickened.
  1½ cups water, 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice

To Serve

• When completely cool, carefully remove board away from the top of the basbousa – ensure that the condensation on the board does not drop onto the cake (to avoid water drops discolouring the surface).
• Cut into squares based on the number of almonds decorating the cake.