Persian Love Cake

This cake is so very therapeutic to make! The bright oranges and yellows of the citrus fruits, mixed with the interestingly shaded greens and purples of the textured pistachios are a feast for the eyes. And the intoxicating scent of the cardamom, orange, lemon and rosewater is a smell so mouthwatering I would love to have a perfume made from it. Especially making the syrup will make your whole kitchen smell of heaven.

The flavours are reminiscent of the Middle East, where tales are told about a princess who baked an almond cake with rosewater and pistachios to make a man fall in love with her.

It’s certainly a crowd pleaser because of its unusual blend of spices and florals, you will be enchanted too.

For the cake

300g Almond Flour
250ml full fat Yoghurt
6 Eggs
220g Caster Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
8 Cardamom Pods
3 tbsp Rosewater
6 tbsp Pistachios, chopped
a pinch of Saffron strands
50ml Whole Milk
Zest from 1 Lemon
Zest from 1/2 Orange

For the syrup

Juice of 1 Lemon
Zest of 1 Lemon
125g Caster Sugar
4 tbsp Rosewater + 2 tbsp Rosewater at the end
125ml Water

For the decoration

A few freshly cut roses, a handful of chopped pistachios and some powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 165 degrees Celcius.

Open the cardamom pods and take out the seeds. Crush into small pieces with a pestle and mortar to release the flavours. Add the lemon and orange zest as well as the chopped pistachios and set aside.
In a small saucepan, slowly heat up the milk together with the saffron. Once warmed up set aside to cool again. Once more or less cooled add the rosewater.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the eggs and sugar together for about five minutes - until the mixture has lightened in colour and roughly tripled in size.
Gently fold in the yoghurt, then the almond flour, then the cardamom mixture and lastly the saffron milk. Use a spatula to try and preserve as much of the fluffiness as possible.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until a pick comes out clean and the top looks golden.

While you wait for the cake to bake, add all ingredients for the syrup into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer until the consistency turns into a liquid syrup. Once the syrup is done turn off the fire (it will thicken a bit more). Add two more tablespoons of rosewater and then pour over the cake while the cake is still warm.

Let cool completely and decorate with rose petals, pistachios and powdered sugar.