Persian Love Cake

With Iran being the home of paradise gardens, take a culinary trip through your own paradise garden with a slice of Persian Love Cake. A slice of this cake is guaranteed to put love in the air between you and the lucky person you choose to share it with. Think of it as Farsi poetry in the form of baked goods.

I’m a sucker for everything about this cake – the taste and texture, how it looks and being a romantic, the name. Legend has it that there was once a Persian woman who was madly in love with a prince. To make him fall for her charms, she baked him the cake, full of magical love powers and temptation. Fragrant rosewater, royal saffron, jewelled pistachios, sweet honey, rich olive oil, whipped icing and cardamom with its legendary aphrodisiac qualities…has there ever been such a flirtatious cake?

The texture of this cake is moist with a soft crumb, thanks to the olive oil, ground almond and rose syrup combination. The beauty of these ingredients is that this cake actually tastes better the day after it’s made as the flavours really have a chance to meld and mature. I’ve offset the sweetness a little with a labneh icing which is in keeping of its Middle Eastern roots. You could use regular cream cheese as a substitute if you can’t get hold of your own labneh or haven’t the time to make your own. (Making your own labneh is super easy and I implore you to give it a go by following my recipe, here.) You could also skip the icing entirely and just decorate the top with chopped pistachios and candied rose petals instead, it’s delicious and beautiful both ways.

Make this cake, you’ll love yourself and others will love you also.

Persian Love Cake

5 from 2 votes

Course: Cakes, DessertCuisine: Middle EasternDifficulty: Easy

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

1

minute

Fragrant rosewater, royal saffron, jewelled pistachios, sweet honey, rich olive oil, whipped icing and cardamom with its legendary aphrodisiac qualities…has there ever been such a flirtatious cake?

Ingredients

• Cake

• 200 g almond meal

• 165 g fine semolina

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 2 tsp ground cardamom

• pinch salt

• 120 ml olive oil

• 200 g caster sugar

• 100 g light brown sugar

• 2 eggs

• 250 g natural yoghurt

• 1 orange, zest of

• Syrup

• 40 ml orange juice

• 20 g runny honey

• 2 tsp rosewater

• Frosting

• 350 g labneh

• 120 g icing sugar

• 1 tbsp orange blossom water

• generous pinch powdered saffron

• pinch kosher salt

• 10 g unsalted pistachios, chopped

• Candied rose petals

• pesticide-free, untreated petals

• 1 egg white

• 30 g caster sugar

Directions

• Candied Rose Petals (optional)
• Whisk the egg white until frothy. Delicately brush each clean rose petal with the frothy egg white using a clean paintbrush. Sprinkle each petal with the sugar and leave to dry on a tray covered with greeseproof paper for half a day in a cool, dark place.
• Cake
• Preheat the oven to 180°C then grease and line a 9″ cake tin.
• In a bowl, mix together the almond meal, semolina, baking powder, cardamom and salt.
• In a separate large bowl, cream the olive oil, both sugars together until lighter in colour and frothy. Add the eggs to the mixture and beat until smooth. Then add the yoghurt and zest and beat until incorporated.
• fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
• Bake for 45 – 60 minutes or until cooked in the centre. Use the skewer test to check.
• In the meantime, combine the fresh orange juice, honey and rosewater into a pan and stir over a gentle heat until combined. Using a skewer poke lots of holes all over the cake and pour the warm syrup over the top of the cake. Leave to soak and cool fully in the pan before removing it onto a serving plate.
• Frosting
• For the frosting, beat together the labneh, icing sugar, orange blossom water, powdered saffron and salt in a bowl until soft and spreadable. When the cake has cooled completely, spread the frosting over the top liberally. Decorate with the chopped pistachios and candied rose petals. Enjoy with your loved ones.