Sfouf (Turmeric Cake)

5 from 240 votes

Sfouf is a Middle Eastern semolina turmeric cake, made with simple ingredients, no eggs and no butter. It's vegan-friendly, light and delightful

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.

How fun is this cake name? Sfouf! *Too fun*

Sfouf is an arabic word that means lines and it’s used here to describe the way this cake is cut into lines. The cake itself is a semolina-turmeric oil-based yellow cake. It’s a simple plain cake with mild flavors and not at all sweet – the perfect light dessert or snack to go with your cup of coffee!

Plate of sfouf being served

What do you need to make sfouf?

I learned this sfouf recipe from my mom and my mother-in-law. Both essentially make it the same way, but my mom likes to add rose water to the wet ingredients to give it a fresh aromatic flavor.

You only need a few ingredients to make sfouf. The best part is that it’s egg-free and butter-free. And it’s almost vegan, except for the use of 1 cup of milk. You can easily substitute that milk with plant-based milk or water to make this recipe fully vegan.

It’s a super simple recipe that uses basic baking ingredients, but includes three distinct ingredients:

  1. Turmeric: The turmeric essentially gives the cake a rich yellow color, a sweet and distinct taste, and the added antioxidant benefits. Just one tablespoon of turmeric mixed with the dry ingredients goes a long way.
  2. Semolina: This is a coarse purified wheat that’s usually used to make pasta. You’ll use the semolina in this cake along with flour to add a nutty texture, compared to just using flour alone.
  3. Tahini: This is a paste made from sesame seeds. I use it in this sfouf recipe to coat the pan, instead of oil or butter. It’s so widely available in all stores these days. But if you can’t find it, you can coat the oil with oil or butter instead. It just adds to the richness of the recipe.
Large basket of sfouf cut into squares ready to be served

RECIPE VIDEO TUTORIAL

How do you make sfouf

To start, you’ll want to mix together the dry ingredients: This includes the turmeric and you can see here the color is fairly light before cooking.

Collage of two images showing the dry ingredients before and after mixing

Then comes the wet ingredients. Mix until the sugar dissolves, then combine the wet and dry ingredients together and the batter is ready to go.

Collage of two images showing sfouf batter before and after mixing

A unique step about this recipe is how we coat the pan. Instead of just using cooking spray, we use tahini to coat the pan. This serves two purposes: first it coats the pan with something oily so the batter doesn’t stick to the pan. And second, it gives the cake a nutty flavor that is pretty iconic of the cake. So after spreading the tahini on the baking pan, you can pour the batter over.

Collage of two images showing the pan greased with tahini and the batter getting poured over the tahini

It’s traditional to sprinkle the top of the batter with with raw pine nuts. You can also use almonds, or leave it out completely.

Batter poured into prepared pan and sprinkled with pine nuts

Then you’ll bake the sfouf in the oven for about 30 minutes. Use the pine nuts as a clue to its readiness. You want them golden, but not brown.

Final sfouf recipe right out of the oven showing a rich golden color.

Grab that cup of coffee folks, because it’s sfouf time! You can cut them into squares, rectangles or diamonds – 9 or 12 pieces. The end result is a beautifully colored simple turmeric cake that I grew up eating. It’s one of the most popular Lebanese cakes, and I love how simple it is to make!

Plate of sfouf being served

Notice how the turmeric color became more enhanced after baking? It’s pretty much turmeric cake, and it’s pretty much one of those iconic Lebanese/Middle Eastern desserts that we grew up having. If you’re obsessed with anything turmeric like I am, try my golden milk latte – it’s basically liquid gold in a cup.

Large basket of sfouf cut into squares ready to be served

More Middle Eastern inspired desserts:

If you’ve tried this healthy-ish feel good Sfouf recipe or any other recipe on FeelGoodFoodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories!

Sfouf (Turmeric Cake)

Sfouf is a Middle Eastern semolina turmeric cake, made with simple ingredients, no eggs and no butter. It's vegan-friendly, light and delightful
5 from 240 votes
Servings 16 servings
Course Dessert
Calories 197
Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 40 mins
Total Time 50 mins

Ingredients
  

  • 1 ½ cup coarse semolina or fine, or mixture of both
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon turmeric
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ cup canola oil or other neutral oil
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup cane sugar
  • 1-2 tablespoons tahini to grease the pan can be replaced with oil
  • Handful of pine nuts or almonds

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375ºF and grease a 9×9" baking pan with the tahini sesame oil or other oil.
  • Mix the dry ingredients (semolina, flour, turmeric and baking powder) together in a large bowl.
  • Mix the wet ingredients (canola oil, milk and cane sugar) in another small bowl until the sugar is completely dissolved in the mixture.
  • Combine the dry and wet ingredients until batter is smooth and bright yellow. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and sprinkle the pine nuts all over.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until the pine nuts are golden.
  • Cool on a wire rack and cut into 16 squares or diamond shapes.

Video

Notes

Storage: Store any leftovers in an airtight container. They will last about 7 days at room temperature or about 10 days in the fridge.
Substitutes: For best results, follow the recipe as is. However here are some common substitutes that would work well in this recipe.
  • For tahini, you can substitute oil or butter
  • For the coarse semolina, you can also use fine semolina, but don’t use flour instead of semolina because it will not yield the right results
  • For the pine nuts, you can use almonds. Silvered almonds work well and make sure they are raw since they will be getting roasted in the oven.
Sourcing: You can find some of the Middle-Eastern specific items like the semolina and tahini at Middle Eastern markets, natural-foods stores or even in large supermarkets, often located with other Middle Eastern ingredients.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g, Calories: 197kcal, Carbohydrates: 28g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 8g, Cholesterol: 1mg, Sodium: 7mg, Potassium: 106mg, Sugar: 13g, Vitamin A: 25IU, Vitamin C: 0.1mg, Calcium: 38mg, Iron: 1.1mg

Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.

Share this recipe

Share it with the world! Mention @feelgoodfoodie or tag #feelgoodfoodie!

White plate with three pieces of sfouf

Rate and comment

Recipe Rating




Comments

  1. Thank you Yumna for this great recipe!! It reminded me of my childhood days 🙂 Only for this cake, my mother would let us taste the batter before baking because it contained no raw eggs 😀

    One question please, do you think next time I can substitute the cane sugar for maple syrup or grape/date molasses?

    Thank you!

    1. Aww yay, this is one of my favorites growing up as well! I’ve never used liquid syrup in this recipe, but I think it should be ok. If you find that the batter is too runny, add 2 tablespoons of flour to it. Let me know if you end up trying one of those suggestions.

  2. Hi, I substituted the milk with 2 cups of almond milk. How would you say that affected the calories per serving? 1 cup of almond milk is 30 calories

    1. If you substitute 1 cup of milk for 2 cups of almond milk (each cup being 30 calories), each serving (1/16 of the recipe) should be around 177.6 calories.

  3. What could be a substitute for natural milk? That would not change the taste.
    For someone who has a low tolerance for dairy products.

    Thank you

  4. I want to try the Turmeric Cake and wondering if you can recommend a coarse semolina flour? Bob’s Red Mill is something that I found locally but it says it’s for pasta. I can find other brands that I can get delivered on Walmart/Amazon sites (Rani Sooji , Melissa, Hemani Sooji). Wondering what you use? Thanks 🙂

  5. Hi Yumna! I want to make this recipe for Ramadan this month, but I was hoping you could confirm if I can substitute semolina flour for almond flour. I understand semolina is used for its gluten properties to make the bread fluffy so I’m not sure if almond flour would work.

    Thanks so much.

    1. Hi! Unfortunately I haven’t tried this recipe with almond flour yet, so I’m not sure how it’ll turn out.

  6. Oh. My. Gosh. YUM!!!! I just made this after having the page bookmarked for a couple months. A local bakery makes a turmeric muffin/cake and I wanted something similar and this totally hits the spot! I used fine semolina (I think. 🤔 it was bobs red mill) and sesame seeds on top. I will definitely be making this again and will put both sesame and poppy seeds on top. MAKE THIS!!!

      1. I do have a question about mine! I baked mine even longer than the 35 minutes and it seemed to be undercooked in the middle and fine around the edges. Still totally edible but kind of gooey. Any idea why that would’ve happened?

    1. I have not tried this recipe with powdered milk yet. The milk is necessary though because it adds moisture.

  7. I made your recipe today. The flavour is wonderful but the colour is strange. Instead of a pale yellow, it’s quite orange.

    Do you have any thoughts on why that happened?

  8. Amazing and simple yet so divine! My téta would be proud! I’m substituted sugar with honey though 💕 thank u for sharing

See All Comments