Saudi Arabia Magic Cake {Around the World in 12 Dishes}

It’s time again for my monthly post for “Around the World in 12 Dishes,” the series in which each month participating bloggers travel the world with their kids by cooking a dish from another country and perhaps reading a book, doing a craft, or learning fun facts about it.

I posted earlier about our dress-up play to learn about Saudi Arabia.  Today I am sharing our experience making Magic Cake!  This is an absolutely delicious recipe for  semolina cake with lemon rosewater that I borrowed from my amazing friend Sasha of Global Table Adventure!

Monkey was fascinated with the idea of a “magic” cake!  I called it that because after you bake it, you pour on top a heavenly concoction of lemon juice, sugar, and rosewater.  This perfumed syrup forms a lake on top – which magically disappears by the next morning!

The real trick of this recipe is to get the right kind of semolina.  (You can get all the details and see a photo in Sasha’s post).  Otherwise the syrup won’t soak into the cake properly.

 Before adding the syrup

Covered in a glistening lake of lemon rosewater syrup

Ready to eat!

We also learned about the geography of Saudi Arabia by tracing a map and filling it in.  This went much better than when I asked Monkey to make a flag during our last unit!

What magical adventures have you been having with your kids?

Check out the other participating blogs to see what they have been cooking up:

Adventures In Mommydom, Afterschool for Smarty Pants, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Maroc Mama, Creative World of Varya, Glittering Muffins, Kid World Citizen, Mermaids’ Makings, The Educators’ Spin On It and The Mommy Talks.

If you try a dish from Saudi Arabia, we’d love to hear about it! You can link up your dish or craft here to share your post on all the participating blogs: