This cake was ‘love at first bite’ for me. Maybe it’s the taste that gives it the name Persian ‘Love’ Cake.
On my birthday this year, I decided to try Persian Love cake. I have had it at a friend’s place earlier and loved it. Looking up on the internet, I came across tens of recipes, made in all different ways. So I picked two recipes, which had good reviews and different recipes. I followed the recipes and made two different cakes to try and test which one tasted better. One of the recipes had an upper hand but still needed some tweaks. I made some changes to the recipe and made it again. This time it came out perfectly. So, here’s the tried and tested recipe for all of you which gives just the right amount of sweetness, subtle notes of rose and cardamom, and an incredible texture.
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Storage
This cake stores well for up to a week in an air tight container in the fridge. In the freezer, it can last up to 2 months.
Ingredients At a Glance
Notes:
- Do not replace almond meal with almond flour. These are two different things. Almond meal is made by grinding almonds (with or without skin). To make almond flour, the oil is extracted to give it a more flour-like consistency.
- If you want to make an eggless cake, use flaxseed mixture instead. For every egg, take 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds and 2 & 1/2 tablespoons room temperature water. Mix and leave to rest for about 7 minutes. Add this instead of eggs in the recipe.
- In Germany semolina is available by the name Grieß. For this recipe, I have used Hartweizen-Grieß from Aldi.
- You can use regular sugar instead of brown sugar in the recipe. I have used Brauner Zucker from Aldi.
Persian Love Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups (200g) almond meal
- 1 ½ cups (165g) semolina
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- a pinch ground nutmeg
- 1.5 tsp ground cardamom
- 120g (8 tbsp) unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup (175g) brown sugar (Brauner Zucker)
- 2 eggs (or flax eggs: see notes below)
- 1 cup (250g) plain yoghurt
- Zest of one orange
- ¼ cup 25 grams pistachios (chopped)
For the Syrup:
- 80g sugar
- 1 Tbsp dried rind of orange (optional)
- 2 Tbsp rose water
- 75 ml water
Instructions
- Preheat oven 180C. Grease and line a 22cm cake pan.
- Beat butter and sugar with an electric beater until incorporated. Add eggs, beat until smooth. Then add yoghurt and orange zest, beat until smooth.
- Mix almond meal, semolina, baking powder, nutmeg and cardamon in bowl.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Stir until mixed through.
- Pour into pan, smoothen surface. Scatter over pistachios.
- Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour, until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Poke 30 – 40 holes all over the cake using a skewer. Pour warm syrup over while cake is still hot. Leave to soak for 1 hour+ before removing from pan.
- Decorate with rose buds. Cool then slice to serve.
For the Syrup:
- Place ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to simmer and stir to dissolve sugar. Simmer for 2 minutes. Keep warm (or reheat) for pouring.
Notes
- Do not replace almond meal with almond flour. These are two different things. Almond meal is made by grinding almonds (with or without skin). To make almond flour, the oil is extracted to give it a more flour-like consistency.
- If you want to make an eggless cake, use flaxseed mixture instead. For every egg, take 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds and 2 & 1/2 tablespoons room temperature water. Mix and leave to rest for about 7 minutes. Add this instead of eggs in the recipe.
- In Germany semolina is available by the name Grieß. For this recipe, I have used Hartweizen-Grieß from Aldi.
- You can use regular sugar instead of brown sugar in the recipe. I have used Brauner Zucker from Aldi.
