Kuwait – Traditional Gers Ogaily (Perfumed Cake)

by Fariha Saeed

About the dish

The word ”GERS” means disc and ”OGAILY” means a black circle cloth robe that is worn by men on their heads. This is the most popular and appetizing dessert in Kuwait. This is cooked in a bundt cake pan. The other name of” GERS OGAILY” is ”PERFUMED CAKE” because of its aromatic scent which is made of cardamom, saffron, rose water, and sesame seeds which are toasted. The aroma of all the things together makes it a Kuwaiti desert. The texture is very unique it is moist, fluffy, light, and really soft and the flavor is so delicious that you can eat the whole cake at once. Look-wise it is very similar to bundt cake but flavor-wise it is totally different from bundt cake. You can add different essence to the cake but the authentic is the cardamom and saffron aroma.

• vanilla
• strawberry
• rose
• almond saffron
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• coconut

It is very popular to serve at gatherings, weddings, and functions. People love to eat this with a cup of tea or coffee as an evening snack. You can also have this as a late-night snack. The color of it is brown from the outside and yellow from the inside. so when you cut it you can see the nice yellow color. The most important part that before it goes in the oven sprinkle it with toasted sesame seeds to give it a nice look. Street vendors sell this cake with tea, coffee, juice, or whatever you want. This cake is old-fashion Kuwaiti cuisine. Some people like to add sauce like chocolate sauce, vanilla sauce, strawberry sauce it goes very well with it but it is not the part of the dish. I wish you can taste the cake so you know what kind of taste and aroma it has. You can also give it to kids like their school lunch dessert. This is the best cake and dessert in Kuwait.

Nutrition list

• Calories 170 g
• fat 3 g
• Carbohydrate 25 g
• protein 2 g

Ingredients of the cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 5 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 1/3 tsp saffron
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 stick butter
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 3 tbsp rose water

Method

Take a bowl and combine all the wet ingredients like Rosewater, butter, eggs and mix well until all the things are combined. Keep it aside for 30 minutes. Now take another big bowl and add the all-purpose flour, salt, saffron, cardamom, and mix well.

Now take the wet ingredients bowl and add the baking powder and sugar in it and whish it for at least 25 minutes. After that pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients bowl and mix well. Make sure that there are no lumps left. Don’t forget to grease the pan with some oil.

Now preheat the oven for 10 minutes and take a bundt pan and put the toasted sesame in the bottom so when your cake is cooked when you take it out from the pan the sesame is on the top. On the sesame seeds put the cake batter in the pan and cook for about 20 minutes.