Almond Sugee Cake
Ingredients:
500 gm butter
250 gm semolina
300 gm castor sugar
125 gm finely chopped almonds
60 gm sifted plain flour
15 egg yolks
5 egg whites
2 Tbsp brandy
1 Tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp almond essence (optional)
Method:
1. Fry semolina over slow fire till light brown and fragrant, then leave to cool.
2. Cream butter with 100 gm sugar till light and creamy. Add in golden syrup, Brandy and fried semolina and stir well. Leave to stand for 8 hours or overnight.
3. Beat egg yolks with 100 gm sugar until thick and lemon coloured, then add vanilla essence and almond essence. Fold in finely chopped almonds and sifted plain flour.
4. Beat egg whites with remaining 100 gm sugar and a pinch of cream of tartar till stiff.
5. Add egg yolk mixture to butter mixture and finally fold in beaten egg whites.
6. Pour into a 10″ square tin and bake in preheated moderate oven at 180°C for 1 hour.
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About Rose
Hi! My name is Rose and I really love cooking and baking and experimenting with new recipes. After recovering from Breast cancer about a year ago I decided that I really wanted to share my favourite recipes with people who also love cooking and baking. I have a large compilation of recipes - some are my own, some I have found. I am in the process of transferring all of them online so that my family and everyone else can have access to them. I really don’t want these recipes to go to waste! I hope you will enjoy these recipes as much as I have. Comments and Feedback are always appreciated. God bless! - Rose
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Hello Rose’s Kitchen,
I have tried your almond sugee cake recipe and it turned out devine! I can’t express how delighted I was when my whole family commented it was the best sugee cake they have ever had! Your recipe works and I’m glad I found your web page.
I followed every instruction except that I added about 130ml of UHT milk and cream to the butter mixture before I let it stand for a few hours. I also added rum essense instead of brandy and 1/2 tsp of baking soda so my cake would rise.And the results were to my expectation. I had a great smelling, rich and moist sugee cake which tasted even better after keeping some for a few days!!!
Hi Rose’s kitchen, just a question, what size eggs do you use? Thanks.
Hi Dawn, I use medium-sized eggs. Thanks! - Rose
Rose,
I have made sugee cake following your recipe several times and it turned out great. However, the last two times I made it the middle became pudding like texture. Could you help me out with this? Thanks.
Rose,
Could i drop the brandy from the recipe or could i use something else ?
Hi Rashidah,
You can omit the brandy or substitute with orange juice.
Hi Rasidah,
Perhaps you didn’t fold in the flour properly.
Hi Rose
I am looking for Sugee Cookie recipe. Do you have the recipe? Could you publish the recipe? Thanks.
Hi James,
I’ve published the recipe for Almond Suji Cookie. Hope its the one you’re looking for. Thanks.
Hi Rose
When do we add the golden syrup in your recipe?
Thanks for sharing and God bless.
Hi Faye,
You can add the golden syrup together with the Brandy in step 2. Thanks for highlighting this to me.
God bless.
Hi,
When beating the egg yolks with sugar, do we just beat until well mixed or do we beat the yolks until pale and creamy?
Thanks!
Hi Sarah,
I usually beat the egg yolks till fluffy, then gradually I add in the sugar and continue to beat until thick and lemon coloured.
Hi Rose,
I am new to baking (just managed to bake a few carrot cakes and they turned out fantastic and am now trying to be adventurous and bake something different for a change) and wonder what will make the sugee cake to rise as I noticed that your recipe indicated the used of plain flour and not self-raising flour. Do I need to add in some baking power, and how much should I add ( 1/4 tsp???). Thanks a lot for your anticipated advice.
Another thing, I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to you for being so generous in putting your sugee recipe on the net for the good of others!
God Bless you!
Cheerio!
Josephine wong
Hi Josephine,
I used to be just as adventurous like you but I haven’t bake for quite some time. So don’t get disappointed if you don’t get satisfactory answers.
I did not use baking powder for this recipe but if you want to, you can add 1/2 tsp bp and 130ml milk as what Melissa did.
All the Best!
God Bless!
Hi Rose
I’ve tried baking sugee cake several times before and the cakes always turned out too dry or too oily. I chanced upon your website a couple of months back and since then tried your sugee cake recipe twice - both times it turned out great. Everyone was raving about it.
Thank you for your generosity in sharing your recipe.
God Bless!
Alex
Thanks Alex,
It’s my pleasure. So happy to hear that you all enjoyed the cake.
God Bless!
Dearest Rose
Firstly, thanks so much for sharing this special recipe with all. I am intending to go shop for all the stuff to start baking when I realised I don’t know what is this “golden syrup”. Any alternative other than using this golden syrup? Thanks
Dear Rose,
It took me along time to get a recipe for sugee cake and thanks alot for sharing. I will try it out soon. Question: What happens to the semolina after 8 hours? Is semolina the same thing as the indians use in making their ‘caseri’?
Anne
Hi Florence,
You can purchase Tate Lyle’s golden syrup from supermarkets.
If its not available, just omit.
Happy Baking!
Rose
Hi Anne,
Soaking the semolina helps plump up the grains. Indians used them to make desserts like: suji halva and laddoo.
Our Indian cook at the Guest House used to cook the semolina until like ‘bubur’ and it tasted good with some milk added.
God Bless!
Rose
Dear Rose,
do i need to soak the semolina before frying them??
hi Ellen,
Do not soak the semolina before frying or it will become a sticky mess.
Regards.
Rose
Hi Rose,
Thank you for ya response, to my last question. Just wanna find out from you… when u said,leave butter mixture to stand… do i leave it in the fridge, or just room temp.
Thank U !!
hi Ellen,
You just leave the butter mixture to stand at room temp.
All the best!
Rose
hi rose,
i saw your recipe and thought of trying it out. but when i went to the shop and ask for semolina, they gave me sugee flour. it looks like flour. is it the same? i thought semolina looked rather grainy.
thanks for sharing the sugee recipe but can I add baking powder for the cake to rise
hi Irene,
Semolina is grainy in texture, it is sold in loose form or in cans.
Regards.
hi Teresa,
You need not add baking powder for this cake.
Regards.
thanks. looks like it’s shopping for semolina again.
Dear Rose,
Just came across your website.Looking forward to try out your Almond Sugee Cake.Could I use cornmeal which is also known as corn semolina instead of wheat semolina? Will the taste differ?
Ailis Khalid
hi Ailis,
I’ve not tried this recipe with cornmeal, perhaps you want to give it a try and tell us your results.
Regards.
Hi Rose,
Melissa mentioned that she added about 130ml of UHT milk and cream to the butter mixture. Do u think she meant 130ml of milk and 130ml of cream or 130 ml OR a mixture of both milk and cream ??
Thx.
Hi Rose,
Melissa mentioned that she added about 130ml of UHT milk and cream to the butter mixture. Do u think she meant 130ml of milk and 130ml of cream OR 130 ml of a mixture of both milk and cream ??
Thx.
Hello Lynn,
What I meant was the latter - 130 ml mixture of both milk and cream. For those of you worried about adding brandy( alcohol) into your batter, like I said earlier add rum essence. It just gives the flavor WITHOUT the alcohol. Of course the shelf life will not last as long but it works just as well. Omit if you like or like Rose says add orange juice instead. Also, better to add baking soda so that the cake won’t turn out too compressed and hard
Wao… That was really helpful
Melissa, THX !!
Thank you Melissa,
That was really sweet of you.
Blessings!
Rose
hi,
for the almonds, do you mean ground almonds, or just almond nibs?
thanks!
hi Mag,
You can use ground almonds.
Regards!
Good morning Rose,
Thanks for your lovely website. It is fantastic, especially the soup section.There should be more websites like yours out there. I was actually looking for an Indian steamed sugee dish and found your sugee cake instead. Sounds like a best seller from the other readers. If you live in Penang, where I am currently located, do you mind conducting cooking classes? Do let me know if you are interested. I belong to a Wednesday Mommy’s group and the ladies are keen to learn such skills.
Have a nice day.
Josephine
Hi Rose,
I would like to clarify that the cooking classes request was from a group of elderly Japanese ladies and not the playgroup Mommies. Most of the Mommies can bake and cook like a pro. I’m sorry for the error. Thanks for your time.
Josephine
Wow! Josephine,
You must be very active in your Mommy’s group. Must be a pretty interesting group too! So nice of you to help dear.
It would be my greatest joy to be able to share with them but right now I am unable to make plans for some reasons. I’m not residing in Penang but I believe you do have a lot of good cooks in Penang too.
God bless u & yr Mommy’s group
Rose
Hello! Help solve the problem.
Very often try to enter the site, but says that the password is not correct.
Regrettably use of remembering. Give like to be?
Thank you!
hi Rose,
My Aunt loves sugee cake but she’s lactose-intolerance… Is there anyway to replace the butter in the Almond Sugee Cake? What about olive oil, sunflower or canola and how much quantity needed as the oil is liquid…
Oh, i love your site so much… Thank you for sharing!!!
pixen
hi Pixen,
I haven’t tried replacing butter with any other oil. You can try corn oil but you will have to gauge the amount of oil sufficient to soak the suji. For more information regarding lactose-intolerance, you can refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Butter
Regards
Rose
Dear Rose,
Read all the comments and everyone was pleased & satisfied that i’ve got to try. I’ve been long looking for the recipe! I love to bake & make cookies just don’t have the confidence to do the practical though.
Kindly advise me when they mentioned ‘cream’, what cream are they refering to? ‘Castor sugar’-will the packet written as it is or its normal sugar? Making this cake, must i use the ‘machine’ to blend or can i use ‘whisking’ method? When you mentioned ‘fold’ means? Oven should i use with the fan? Many Thanks.
I love all your recipes…the cooking methods you have used are very easy to follow and understand. I am going to try cooking every single recipes you have posted. Thanks! Keep up the good work!!!
Hi Angie,
Thanks for your encouragement. Happy cooking!
Rose
Hi Rose,
Just wanted to share a tip with the others. You can add evaporated milk as well to the butter mixture, it turns out fabulous. This is one of the best Almond Sugee Cakes indeed. Very lovely cake. Just wndering though.. Is it ok if I use self-raising flour instead of plain flour? Haven’t tried using self raising flour, just curious if it can be used. Thanks
Thanks Rose for sharing your recipe. Can I ask what is the reason for frying the semolina? Your sugee recipe is different from the one that I would normally do, where I would melt the butter and then add the semolina and leave it to stand overnight. Maybe you could help me with my query.What is the reason for the centre of the cake sinking a little as compared to the sides, during baking. Veronica
Hello Aunty,
I am Singaporean living in Norway. It’s bitter winter here and I am glad I found your site. Would be cooking from all lovely recipes you here. Thank you for that. God Bless
Hi.
Good design, who make it?
Hi Rose,
I’m living in a hot and humid country, Malaysia. Is it okay to leave my butter mixture at room temperature (around 30 degree Celcius) or should I put it in the fridge? And, do I need to cover the butter mixture?
Hi Rose:
What great recipes! Thank you for sharing them. I read the comments and didn’t see anyone else asking this question so it seems everyone understands except me:
1. Fry semolina over slow fire till light brown and fragrant, then leave to cool - what are you using to fry the semolina?
Thanks. I want to be clear before I make the cake.
Hello,
just wondering, for those who have baked this cake, what size tray have you used? I’m from Singapore, and like Wynxon commented do we let the mixture stand in our room temperature?
Thanks!
Hello Rose, you have done something that I always dreamed of doing, i,e having a forum with people who share the same interest i.e cooking and baking. I do have a couple of nice recipes too, will find time to make a website for myself too. Will definitely try out the Sugee cake.
Dear Rose, are you also residing in Singapore? Maybe all of us in Singapore could have a little gathering to get to know each other and talk about out hobby. Any interest anyone?
god bless you!!!
Hi rose,
never expected it took me more than a year to try out this recipe. i finally found sugee in tin when cold storage opened its branch here. my collegues loved it. got 3 eurasians to test. one said not enough brandy, another one say the smell is not great enough. maybe bcos i used ground almonds instead of finely chopped ones or maybe i did not fry long enough. will definitely try again with milk. thanks a lot. i come from a state where many eurasians (sugee cake is a MUST during wedding) live but no one will give a step by step lesson or recipe. Thanks a lot again and may god bless you!!!
Hi Rose
I live in Pensacola, Florida & was going to make a sugee cake from a recipe that I have had all these years. It does not call for browning the semolina. I would love to try your recipe, as from all the comments I gather it is fabulous!! It is my favorite Malaysian cake & it would bring me down memory lane. In the past, I have used Cream of Wheat & it was fairly good. I googled ’semolina’ & gather that I might be able to use plain couscous as it seems to be a coarser durum wheat. What do you think about that?
Also, thank you for your generosity in sharing the recipes. I will be forwarding your website to all my sisters as we all live abroad & Malaysian food is greatly missed!
God Bless You!
Rosemary Perrett (Malacca)
Dear Rose
Thanks for sharing the recipe. I baked it for my sister’s 50th Birthday and everyone loved it and now everyone’s requesting it for their birthdays:0 The Katongites especially commented that it was very authentic Eurasian/ Nonya sugee cake.
For those who are interested, you can also add a tin of Nestle cream (blue tin) instead of the 130m half milk and half cream suggested by Melissa. Some recipes have recommended using tinned butter but ordinary butter is already rich enough.
The frying of the semolina is to release the flavour. There is a nice fragrance too. Use a wide teflon pan on low heat, constantly stirring without oil. I also added 1 tsp rose essence together with the vanilla and almond essence and it was quite delicate and not oevrpowering. I used a 9 inch round pan which fitted the cake perfectly. The shop says the alternative is a 10 inch square pan. Do check oven temps because at 160C my cake baked in only an hour and was beginning to overbrown.
It was then covered it with raspberry jam, almond marzipan and fondant icing with gum paste flowers. The result: 11 contented smiles and one happy birthday girl.
Thanks again Rose and God bless!
PS The leftover eggwhites and extra ground almondmeal can be used for making french macarons
Dear Rose,
Is it possible for me to try this recipe in a half portion, meaning I divide all the ingredients into half, will the cake still turn out okay.
Is it ok if I didn’t leave it overnight like it says in step 2?
Hi Rose,
What’s the difference b/w Semolina vs Semolina flour. I got the flour from Phoon Huat and I am not sure do I still need to fry the flour?
Dear Rose,
I’m new to baking. Can you confirm that there is no typo error - 500gm butter & bake for 1 hour? thanks
Iris
Dear Rose,
I was the one asking about the butter and baking time. I’ve finally succeeded following your recipe without adding other ingredients. It turned out so yummy !!!…. Thanks Rose, it was so noble of you to share your recipe. May God bless you richly.