Image is for illustrative purposes only.
Revani is a semolina sponge, light and golden but with a gentle grain to it that plain flour sponges never have. Whole eggs and sugar are whipped to a ribbon, then cake flour and semolina are folded through with melted butter, vanilla and lemon, so the crumb bakes open and slightly sandy rather than close and cakey.
That open, thirsty crumb is the whole point: revani is made to be soaked. Baked as a slab and drenched in sugar syrup while still warm, it stays moist for days and slices cleanly into squares or fingers. It also works as a base layer under creams and fruit fillings when you want a sponge that carries syrup without going to mush.
Ingredients
The weights in the recipe table below will yield the following 'weight per unit' and 'number of units'. If you would like to change the recipe to cater to a different 'weight per unit' and/or 'number of units',
you can use the Recipe Calculator Tool below the ingredients table.
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Weight Per Unit: 1280
Number of Units: 1
Unit Size: 30 x 25 cm slab tray, about 3 cm high
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WEIGHT
(grams)
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ALTERNATIVE METRIC
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INGREDIENT
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IMAGE
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CONDITION
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A
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500 |
10 Whole Eggs
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Whole Egg
Eggs are one of the most common ingredients in a typical cake. Egg yolks and whole eggs store significant amounts of protein and choline, and are widely used in baking. Usually an eggs role in a cake is to add moisture and richness, act as a raising agent as well as a glue to bind the ingredients together.
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room temperature |
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B
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300 |
10.6 ounces
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Sugar
Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.
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C
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160 |
5.6 ounces
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Cake Flour
Cake flour is a finely milled white flour made from soft wheat. It has very low protein content, between 8% and 10%, making it suitable for soft-textured cakes and cookies. The higher protein content of other flours would make the cakes tough. Highly sifted cake flours may require different volume amounts in recipes than all-purpose flour. Using the scoop and level method, well-sifted flour usually produces 125 g per cup. However, most American recipes are written with 140 g of flour per cup, so weighing and experimentation can be helpful in baking unfamiliar recipes. Small weight differences can greatly affect the texture. American Cake flour is bleached; in countries where bleached flour is prohibited, plain flour can be treated in a domestic microwave to improve the texture of the end product.
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sifted |
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D
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160 |
5.6 ounces
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Semolina
Semolina is coarsely milled durum wheat, sold as a pale, sandy grain finer than couscous but grittier than flour. In cakes it absorbs syrup readily and gives a light, slightly grainy crumb; use the fine grade for sponges.
fine
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E
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125 |
4.4 ounces
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Butter
Butter is a solid dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk, to separate the butterfat from the buttermilk. It is generally used as a spread on plain or toasted bread products and a condiment on cooked vegetables, as well as in cooking, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying. Butter consists of butterfat, milk proteins and water.
unsalted
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melted and cooled |
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F
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15 |
0.5 ounce
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Vanilla Essence
Vanilla Extract is made with 100% pure vanilla beans. With a sweet, syrupy consistency, this Vanilla is ideal for use in icings, drinks and whipped cream as well as classic baking recipes. Vanilla Essence is commercially manufactured by chemicals and is more of a watery consistency as opposed to vanilla extract which is thicker and a lot fuller and richer in flavour. You can replace one with the other but use 50% more of essence. For example, for 1 teaspoon of extract, use 1.5 teaspoons of essence.
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G
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15 |
0.5 ounce
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Lemon Flavouring
Lemon flavouring is a concentrated lemon essence or compound used in small amounts to give baked goods a clear citrus aroma. A little goes a long way; finely grated fresh lemon zest can be used instead, allowing about a teaspoon of zest for each teaspoon of flavouring.
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H
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5 |
0.2 ounce
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Salt
Common salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent; the open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%. Salt is essential for animal life, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous of food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation.
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1280
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Recipe Calculator Tool
Using this tool, you can alter this recipe for your own requirements. Use the two fields below to generate new weights for the ingredients above.
STEP 1. Enter your Custom Weight Per Unit
The 'Custom Weight Per Unit' is already loaded with the weight per unit for this recipe but can be changed if required. If all you wish to do is change the number of units (or servings), just leave the current weight per unit.
STEP 2. Enter your Custom Number of Units
This is the number of units (or servings) you want this recipe to yield.
STEP 3. Click Calculate
The new weights for your adjusted recipe will be displayed in the table above.
Method
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STEP
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ACTION
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DETAIL
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CONDITION
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1 |
Pre-heat |
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (355°F). Grease a 30 x 25 cm slab tray and line the base with baking paper. |
Oven fully up to temperature before the batter is mixed |
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2 |
Prepare |
Melt E (butter) and set it aside. Sift C (cake flour) and combine it with D and H (semolina and salt) in a bowl. |
Butter warm but not hot; dry ingredients evenly mixed |
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3 |
Whip |
Whip A and B (whole egg and caster sugar) on high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume. |
Pale, thick and holding a ribbon on the surface for a few seconds |
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4 |
Flavour |
Add F and G (vanilla essence and lemon flavouring) and whip for a few seconds more. |
Flavours just dispersed, volume not knocked back |
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5 |
Fold |
Sprinkle the flour, semolina and salt mixture over the whipped eggs in two or three lots and fold through by hand with a spatula. |
No dry pockets, batter still light and airy |
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6 |
Fold |
Pour the melted E (butter) down the side of the bowl and fold it through quickly. |
Butter fully incorporated, no greasy streaks at the bottom of the bowl |
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7 |
Fill |
Pour the batter into the prepared tray and spread it level with a palette knife. |
Even thickness corner to corner |
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8 |
Bake |
Bake at 180°C (355°F) for about 25 to 30 minutes. |
Golden on top and springs back when pressed lightly in the centre |
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9 |
Cool |
Leave the sponge in the tray. If you are soaking it, pour cooled sugar syrup over the warm sponge a ladle at a time and let it drink it in before adding more. |
Syrup fully absorbed, surface glossy and moist but not sitting in a puddle |
Important Notes
This quantity makes about 1,280 g of batter, enough for one 30 x 25 cm slab tray around 3 cm high. Revani is at its best soaked: a basic sugar syrup, flavoured with lemon if you like, poured over the sponge while it is still warm from the oven. Cooled syrup on warm sponge is the safest combination, and the syrup should go on slowly so it soaks evenly instead of running to the corners. Unsoaked, the sponge keeps wrapped at room temperature for two days or frozen for a month. Once soaked, keep it covered in the fridge and eat it within three days; bring it back to room temperature before serving. Cut into squares or fingers straight in the tray.
Tools & Arrangements
Electric mixer with whisk attachment, sieve, mixing bowls, rubber spatula, small saucepan for melting the butter, 30 x 25 cm slab tray, baking paper, palette knife, skewer, cooling rack, ladle if soaking with syrup.
