Persian Love Cake is a beautifully scented, rich and delicious cake. Filled with the exotic flavours of cardamon, saffron and rose water this cake is truly a slice of luxury. Loaded with ground almonds and creamy yogurt then drizzled with a sticky citrus syrup, this cake will keep perfectly for a few days while still retaining the moist texture.
Isn’t the name of this cake just beautiful, Persian Love Cake. I feel like a fairytale princess whenever I make it. Legend has it that a Persian woman concocted this cake and filled it with love magic in order to make a handsome Prince fall in love with her. Nobody can agree on whether the tale has a happy ending or not, but I like to think the Prince fell head over heels for the woman and they lived happily ever after. I mean, who could deny the loving powers of this cake.
Traditionally a Persian Love Cake is decorated with dried rose petals and chopped pistachios. Unfortunately I was unable to find dried rose petals… okay okay, I couldn’t be bothered to look for them, you got me, so chopped pistachios and live roses will have to do. I still think it looks rather enchanting.
Persian Love Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
Description
Filled with exotic the flavours of cardamon, saffron and rose water this cake is truly a slice of luxury.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 6 cardamom pods
- 100ml full fat milk
- pinch of saffron strands
- 6 large free range eggs
- 250g caster sugar
- 250ml full fat greek yogurt
- 200g ground almonds
- 100g plain flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- 2tsp rose water
- 75g pistachios, chopped
- 1 orange, zested (reserve juice for syrup)
- 1 lemon, zested (reserve juice for syrup)
For the syrup:
- lemon juice from zested lemon
- orange juice from zested orange
- 50ml water
- 125g caster sugar
- 2tsp rosewater
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175C and grease and line a 22cm cake tin.
- Remove the cardamom seeds from their pods and lightly crush with a pestle and mortar.
- Heat the milk in a small saucepan until warm (do not allow to boil) and add in the saffron strands, set aside while you make the cake.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer mix the eggs and sugar together till thick and creamy. Fold in the almonds, flour, baking powder and yogurt. Add the orange and lemon zest and the chopped pistachios and cardamon and gently fold through until just combined. Stir in the milk and rosewater.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it.
- While the cake is baking, make the syrup. In a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan combine the orange and lemon juice, water, sugar and rosewater and simmer over a medium low heat until the liquid has reduced by half. Around 10 minutes. Brush onto the warm cake and allow to cool in the tin.
- Decorate with rose petals and more chopped pistachios and dust with icing sugar.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Baking
- Cuisine: Persian
That looks and sounds absolutely amazing! Looking at the ingredients, I am sure with a little tweaking I could make this keto friendly! Sim x
That sounds really delicious. I love the delicate flavours of rose water in cakes. Mandi
I honestly am so in love with this cake right now! If I wasn't already hungry then I definitely am now. The recipe sounds fairly easy to follow so I just might have to give this one a try one time. Hopefully my attempt won't be too shameful.
This looks so pretty! I think the real roses give a much prettier touch. I love the taste of rosewater, it's lovely and subtle but so distinctive.
This is a great cake to make for Valentines Day or similar. The folklore is really romantic and the delicate flavour of rosewater makes it really special.
Now this sounds like it would be the most delicious looking cake. I bet it has the most delicious flavouring to it. Oh for a slice of cake right now.
This looks and sounds amazing and I don't even have a sweet tooth! Never tried greek yoghurt in cake before.
I love the story behind the name of the cake. I wonder if it's true and if the prince did fall in love with her or not. Looks delicious!
This looks delicious. I should really try different recipes from around the world.
Wow this cake looks and sounds delicious, a real slice of luxury and beautiful flavours! I love the story behind it as well.
The cake does look absolutely stunning, and I don't think it would last that well in my house, it would be eaten so quickly x
What a stunning looking cake and with such delicious ingredients too and I love the name Persian Love Cake!
Wow. If someone made me this I would love them forever! Anything with rose water and pistachio in it is a big win-win for me.
That cake looks amazing, almost too pretty to eat x
oh wow this cake looks absolutely divine what a wonderful idea and i bet it tastes amazing
You've made me very hungry, I have never tired a persian love cake before
The cake looks stunning and I can only imagine how it tastes #scrummy
first off, your food styling is incredible – love it a lot. The cake looks so delicious and I like that the decoration of it is kept simple, makes it much more achievable for me to recreate
Oh my gosh. This cake is so beautiful. I love naked cakes! The mix of spices, citrus and pistachios sounds really yummy as well. Rachel
Your decorations are beautiful, glad you used the roses as it makes the cake stand out and the photo is amazing
What an absolutely stunning cake. I haven't heard of this cake before, but I love anything with pistachios
This is such a beautiful cake. Definitely one for me to try out.
Oh that just looks so yummy! I want some 🙂
Love these aromatic flavours!
Looks delicious! I made an Afgahnistan custard type dessert which had similar flavours but think I put too much rose water as it was too perfumed for my taste!
This looks delicious. Even better, I love rose water and the Other Half hates it so if I bake it that means I get to eat it xx
A Persian love cake! What a wonderful name. Your photos are so beautiful too – the roses look gorgeous. x
Oh wow how amazing is This cake – I love this! Very luxurious and I bet it tastes yummy x
What do you do with the crushed cardamon ? Not sure if it is meant to be added to the dry ingredients or into the milk with the saffron.
Sorry, the cardamon is added with the rest of the spices to the dry mix.Katie xoxo
This cake is spectacular! I made it for my cousin’s birthday this week and we can’t stop eating it! It went together quite easily, too.
★★★★★
Making a Persian dinner…this looks like the perfect dessert…What size pan?
Hi, it’s a 9″ tin 🙂
Can I use walnuts instead of pistachios?
You can use walnuts but it would loose some of the charm of the cake. Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Katie xoxo
This cake was the best cake made! And I’ve made a lot of delicate nut flour cakes. It’s super moist and all the flavors blend incredibly well. I would add a pinch of salt to my next one. But other than that it was amazing! Thank you!
★★★★★
This cake is heavenly! Absolutely amazing! Everyone loved it! I’m making it again but need to transport it. Do you think it freezes well?
★★★★★
Author
I’m so so happy you enjoyed this cake, it really is special. Yes, this cake will freeze perfectly. Just wrap it in a double layer of cling film and freeze for up to 3 month 🙂
Katie xoxo