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Smoking Chimney

Recipes from a working kitchen · Cape Town

Turkish Delight

By Marna Ross Updated 12 August 2026 4.67 from 88 ratings Turkish
Turkish delight is another great memory from my childhood and if anyone offer me Turkish delight, I would not say no. Unlike my husband who does not like Turkish delight at all. Almost like liquorish sweets, either you like them or not. The same with Turkish delight. I have also once made a lovely Turkish delight cake from a recipe I found in a lovely baking magazine special edition. The cake was beautifully decorated with white and light pink Turkish delight, as well as light pink and white rose petals. A lovely idea for a ladies high tea occasion. Turkish delight is from Lokum, Persia originated and the most popular flavours are lemon, rosewater and orange. Here in South- Africa you find mostly lemon and rosewater. In some occasions also some rose water pink ones coated in chocolate. By writing this article now, I am now very hungry for Turkish delight! When buying turkish delight, the red box of Beacon are my favourite! You can be very creative when making gifts and place them in beautifully decorated CONSOL Jars and also a lovely flat box is a good idea. If you don’t have the perfect wrapping idea, Google can for sure be your friend with plenty of images, photos and ideas! Try out the Fudge as well.
Soft, powdery pink cubes of traditional Turkish delight confectionary dusted with sugar.
Prep 20 min
Cook 30 min
Total 50 min
Serves 40

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Ingredients

  • 3 Tablespoons of powdered gelatine
  • 450 sugar
  • juice of 2 lemons or 1 ml rosewater
  • Pink food colouring
  • 280 ml water
  • sifted icing sugar

Method

  1. Sprinkle the gelatine over the cold water in a sauce pan and heat gently until the gelatine dissolve

  2. Add the sugar and heat until the sugar dissolve, stirring all the time

  3. Bring to the boil and boil for 8 minutes, stirring all the time

  4. Stir in the lemon juice or the rosewater of choice

  5. TIP: If using rose water you can always add a bit more, in some cases the brand of rosewater is very light and you can almost taste no rose flavouring-test it a bit before using to see how strong it is

  6. Add pink food colouring - make it a light pink- you do not want to colour too dark

  7. Pour the mixture in a prepared baking dish - foil and then prepared with spray and cook

  8. Allow to set

  9. Once set, cut into blocks with a wet knife and roll in the sifted icing sugar

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