Persian Love Cake

Recipe: Persian Love Cake

This Persian Love Cake is delicious with subtle fragrances of rose and lemon. It is irresistibly buttery and moist. Perfect for any celebration. Baked with all purpose and almond flours, it has a mixture of aromatics, from rose water, lemon and cardamom. Remains moist because of yogurt. Light and airy due to the eggs.

Origins Of Persian Love Cake

The mythical story is that a Persian woman fell deeply in love with the Prince. She would bake a cake with intoxicating spices and saffron to make him fall in love with her. However, many Iranians are unfamiliar with the Love Cake. It probably originated in the early 2000s when perhaps an Australian chef baked a love cake with exotic spices and rosewater. Some believe that it is the distant relative of the Portuguese Sri Lankan cake Bolo Di Amor ( cake of love). What the story, legend or origins, this cake is pretty popular with my family.

Memories

The first time I baked this Persian Love Cake was to celebrate the 5th Blogiversary on 01/01/2017. Yes a milestone achieved especially considering that my hubby thought I would give up after a few posts. During this journey not only have I learnt a lot about technology but also about food from so many different cuisines. It gives me the incentive to try out new recipes. Some fail, some are failure with my family and many are keepers.

Blogging has also opened up a whole new friendship. Remember years back when people had pen pals. You wrote letters and got to know that person without physically meeting them. Food blogging is a bit like that but through technology and food. Some Bloggers I got an opportunity to meet but many I haven’t.

Participating in different groups has been an extremely important learning curve for me. FoodieMonday/ Bloghop, Shhh Cooking Secretly, We Knead To Bake, Bread Bakers, Home Bakers’ Challenge, etc have all taught me so much about food culture, presentation, photography and how to write better posts.

My Family, My Support

I truly wouldn’t have come so far if it were not for the support I got from my kids and hubby. My daughter Namrata encouraging me to participate in different groups, introducing me to the social media. When I began, I wasn’t even on Facebook and had no idea what it was. She set up my Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram accounts. Learnt from her how to make pins.

My son Neel for helping me to understand what Google documents are, how to create them, how to add links to posts, etc.

My eldest son, Nikhil for advising me how to present food, what utensils, plates to use, etc. And also for giving that nudge to try out new recipes.

And final a big thank you to my hubby. He patiently waits for the food, while I take umpteen of photos. Also he is my main critic. If the recipe is not too good he will tell me not to blog it. During our travels, he too now looks out for props for the food photos. Though we can’t buy all of them, he generally will say “okay we have space in the bag for this one”.

Over Time

There has an improvement in the photos I take. Just as well, there is so much info you can get on the internet. And  I know there is room for improvement. Writing skills have become better. I conquered one of my fears and that is how to make videos for YouTube. My support for that came from Shobha whose YTC is Shobha’s Food Mazaa. Azlin who blogs at Linsfood. com for giving me that push to try out a video. Again the rest of the learning was done by reading articles and posts on the internet. As I am rewriting this post, it has been 14 years since I started the blog. Next big step that I would like to take is have a cookery book.

For this Sunday, the host is Camilla who blogs at Cam’s Culinary. She suggested the following, “July 20th is International Cake Day. Let’s share a favorite recipe for a cake from anywhere in the world. If you don’t have a favorite, I’ll take a cake from America”. When she had announced this theme, I knew I had to redo the Persian Love Cake.

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Ingredients Required For Persian Love Cake

All Purpose Flour

Also known as plain flour. About 150g which is approximately 1¼ cup.

Almond Flour

We need about 200g which is approximately 1¾ cups.

Leavening Agents

We are going to use both baking powder and baking soda (soda bicarbonate).

Salt

A little salt brings out all the flavours. If you use salt less butter, add ½ tsp. I have added only ¼ tsp as I have used salted butter.

Butter

I have used salted butter. We need about 115g which is about ½ cup. Allow the butter to come to a room temperature. Should be soft but not melted.

Eggs

This cake is quite eggy as we will use 4 large eggs. I usually leave the eggs out at room temperature overnight.

Sugar

Caster sugar, 200g which is about 1 cup.

Fresh Lemon

We need both the zest and the juice. Add the zest to the batter, and sprinkle very little on the glaze. Lemon juice will be required for the lemon glaze.

Greek Yogurt

Plain Greek yogurt. Allow it to sit out at room temperature so that it is not very cold.

Cardamom Powder

This cake requires cardamom powder.

Nutmeg

Add a pinch or ⅛ tsp.

Rosewater

Use good quality rosewater. I prefer to buy mine from a Middle Eastern Store. Can also get it online. We will add some to the batter and the lemon glaze.

Powdered Sugar

Also known as icing sugar or confectioners sugar. We need 1 cup for the glaze.

Pistachios

Try and get those dark green pistachios. I usually get mine from Dubai or India. We will need some for the topping. Either crush the pistachios into a coarse powder or slice them. You can add pistachio coarse powder in the batter. If you use about ¼ cup, remove ¼ cup almond flour from the measured amount. Mix the pistachio with the remaining almond flour.

Edible Rose Petals

I get aromatic dried roses from Dubai. They are known as Damask roses. Remove the green stalk gently. Using your finger slowly push it in the small hollow. This will help to separate the petals.

 

 

 

 

PISTACHIO AND ROSE CAKE

Serves 8-10

FOR THE CAKE BATTER

1¼ cup all purpose flour 150g

1¾ cup almond flour 150g

1 cup caster sugar 200g

4 large eggs

½ cup soft butter 115g

½ cup plain Greek yogurt

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp cardamom powder

⅛ tsp nutmeg powder

1 tbsp lemon zest

1 tbsp rosewater