Persian Love Cake
A fluffy and moist almond cake infused with cardamom, lemon and rosewater. This persian love cake features two layers and is covered twice with a rosewater and lemon glaze, topped with pistachios and dried rose petals.
I had some version of this cake at a bakery in nyc many years ago and it really stuck with me. When I looked for a recipe I found Yasmin Khan’s persian love cake from her book The Saffron Tales. It’s a wonderful combination of almond, lemon, cardamom and rosewater. Khan describes the flavor profile as “a persian garden in the late spring”. The ‘love cake’ concept has been around for awhile, the first might’ve been a Portuguese cake, there is a known Sri Lankan version which uses semolina and sometimes cashews, but it was in Persia where rosewater was added and where this mix of floral, spice and citrus came to fruition.
It’s safe to say this flavor combination has a delicious chokehold on me: I’ve made persian love cookies (very popular), persian love rolls (milk bread, cardamom and pistachio), and persian love scones (for a tasty breakfast treat).
When I initially wrote down the idea for this recipe I was just going to take my everyday butter cake recipe and ‘persian love’ it (you’ll note the recipe has quite a bit in common with that one). After the first test though I found I needed to adjust better for the almond flour so I split the fat between butter and oil and because I wanted more water content, I opted for kefir instead of sour cream.
The result is a fluffy, moist cake with a ton of flavor – none overpower each other but they all kind of blend together to create a really unique and wonderfully blissful taste.
Recipe Ingredients
Sugar: fine granulated sugar. Reducing the sugar will cause the cake to be less moist.
Lemons: fresh lemons, we’ll use the zest for the cake so rub off any wax if you lemons have it. After the cake bakes we’ll juice just one for the glaze.
Cardamom: Many recipes uses cardamom pods but I just use the ground spice (it’s easier and less potent).
Rosewater: found at middle eastern grocery stores, you can also use orange blossom water if you like it more.
Eggs: large eggs at room temperature, place them in a bowl of hot water to warm them.
Oil: any kind of flavorless oil, I like grape seed or avocado.
Butter: unsalted and softened.
Almond flour: not almond meal and not ground almond. Almond flour is made from blanched almonds (no skin) and is very fine.
Cake flour: more finely milled than all purpose and has added cornstarch. If you need to use all purpose, swap out 1 ½ tablespoons of the flour for cornstarch.
Kefir: full fat or buttermilk.
Powdered sugar: made with tapioca starch preferably, because it tastes better.
Rose petals: dried petals, yes these are edible! Find them at a middle eastern grocery store.
Pistachios: if yours are raw, toast them for about 7 minutes on a flat baking pan. Chop up the pistachios for the topping.
How to make persian love cake
Prep the cake pans and preheat the oven: butter or grease and flour the cake pans. If you have circular parchment sheets use them too.
Zest the lemons and rub into the sugar, this helps release the oils so you get better flavor.
Add the butter, oil, spices and flavorings and affix the paddle attachment.
Beat until it’s very light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as needed.
Add eggs one at a time, beating between each:
Add flours and baking powder, then the kefir. Stop as soon as you have a smooth batter (it will appear rough because of the almond flour but as long as everything looks mixed it’s done).
Divide between the two pans.
Bake until tops spring back. If you have any doming, slice that off with a bread knife or a cake slicer.
Once the cakes are cool, make the glaze and assemble.
Can I make half the recipe?
Yes – use two six inch pans to make the cakes if you want to stack them or just one 8 inch round cake, it will be short and flat.
Persian Love Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 300 g or 1 ½ cup fine granulated sugar
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 170 g or ¾ cup butter unsalted and softened
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon rosewater
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 50 g or ¼ cup flavorless oil
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt halve it if using table salt
- 3 large eggs
- 145 g or 1 ¼ cup almond flour not ground almonds, not almond meal
- 195 g or 1 ½ cups cake flour sifted
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 120 g or ½ cup kefir or buttermilk
Glaze
- 260 g or 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3-5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon rosewater
- Pistachios and dried rose petals for topping
Method
- Preheat the oven to 325 F. Butter and flour two 8 inch round cake pans (alternatively use a baking spray).
- Set the sugar in the bowl of the stand mixer and over it zest the lemons. Rub the zest into the sugar using your fingers until the texture resembles wet sand.
- Add the butter and oil to the bowl, as well as the cardamom, rose water, vanilla and salt. Affix the paddle attachment and beat the mix starting on low, working up to medium speed.
- Scrape down the bowl as needed and beat again until you have a light and airy mixture.
- With the mixer on, one by one add the eggs allowing 20-30 seconds between each addition. Scrape down the bowl as needed and beat again until the mixture is all smooth.
- Add the flours and baking powder and turn the mixer on low, as it mixes pour in the kefir/buttermilk. Mix until just combined.
- Divide the batter between the two cake pans and smooth out the tops. The cakes won’t dome much in the oven but evening them out prevent any little that might.
- Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
- Let the cakes cool in their pan for about 5 minutes after baking then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Once they are completely cool, slice off any doming with a cake slicer or bread knife (eat the ‘hat’ as a snack 😉 )
Make the glaze
- Whisk together the powdered sugar, the rosewater, a pinch of salt and about 3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice. If the mix is too thick, add another tablespoon or two of lemon juice. Add only as much as you need so that the glaze isn’t too thin, once it’s thick but pourable it’s ready.
- Set the first cake face up on a plate. Spoon some of the glaze on top and smooth it over into an even layer. Add some lemon zest over the glaze if you like.
- Set the top cake face down and spread the rest of the glaze over it - it will drip to the sides on its own so just spread to the edge. Sprinkle the top with finely chopped pistachios and dried rose petals.
Did you make this recipe?
Share & tag me on instagram @buttermilkbysam
Can you freeze this cake, before hand.
Hi Sam, I’m so sorry for being THAT person but I wanted to add coconut to this recipe. Would I need to change the measurements for anything else to account for it? Thanks!
Hi Amy, totally get the urge =) I wish I had an answer for you – I just dont know how much/what to adjust without trying it!
I found rose water and dried rose petals at a Mediterranean store in my area. This cake had different ingredients and that is why I wanted to try it. Everyone seemed to enjoyed it. I measured out everything to the gram and watched through the oven window the layers sink in the middle of the pan around the 22 minute mark so knew it would take longer to bake and added more time (30 minutes in total). Next time I will try adding a bit more flour as maybe it was due to the altitude here in Canada or bake at 350 degrees which is a more common temperature for cakes. It still tasted great and next time I may add a lemon curd in the middle layer.
My son used this recipe for an assignment in culinary class, but made mini cakes using a muffin tin. They were so delicious that they have become a go-to recipe for celebrations. I even baked them for a friend’s bridal shower in a decorative pan for small cakes from Wilton. They were a huge hit! Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
I’m having a hard time finding rose water. Could you suggest an alternative?
You could try orange blossom water
IN LOVE with this cake! I’ve made it multiple times since I posted my comment last year– even made a gluten free version with huge success! I also made this cake for my friend’s 50y anniversary party; the whole cake was devoured and the compliments were non stop 🙂
Confirmed: wrapping the cooled cakes in cling wrap then storing in an airtight container will preserve the flavor and texture. I have two cakes freshly made and going into the freezer in preparation of my elopement. I can’t thank you enough for sharing the recipe 🙂
Hi! Can you please advise how to adjust their recipe if I want to make cupcakes? Thank you!
Nut allergy, is there a substitute for almond flour and can I use orange instead of lemon with the rose flavor? thx.
This is my daughters favourite cake, she always request that I make it, I always add an extra bit of cardamom and rosewater and I use a Lemon cream cheese frosting for a filling to sandwich the 2 layers.
I’ve made Persian love cake before, and I loved the flavour, so I wanted to try this recipe! This cake tastes more like lemon than anything else, and I found the mixture to be very wet. I followed the recipe exactly and the cakes collapsed after being taken out of the oven! Very disappointed
I made a Persian Love Cake another time and fell in love with the warmth of the flavors. I made this cake with exact measurements as was written and I found it to have more of a lemon flavor than anything. I think the zest could be scaled back so it doesn’t overpower the rose so much. Also, my cake fell in the middle while baking and I would suggest omitting the oil and just using butter as oil tends to make for a dense cake. I feel like the next time I want this cake, I would try a different recipe.
Hi Heather, cakes falling in the middle post bake (as long as the oven wasn’t opened) are usually due to underbaking, it sounds like it needed longer. Also, I can definitely see anything I make being ‘too lemony’ for some 🙂 you can always reduce the lemon zest added and use more cardamom or more rosewater next time but it sounds like you already have a recipe you’d like to stick with.
We fell in LOVE with this cake! So much that we’ve decided to make this for our elopement! So now my question is, does the cake freeze well? TYSM!
Oh first off, congratulations! Will it freeze? I think so, after baking let it cool completely then wrap the layers in plastic wrap and store them in an airtight container to preserve texture and freshness.
Could I use a bundt pan for this recipe? Would I need to adjust any measurements?
You can, the bake time will differ (prob take longer) so keep an eye on it and check for doneness with a cake tester.
This was so lovely! I actually used almond meal and it turned out with the perfect crumb. Thanks!
can you pls share eggless recipie
I made this cake for my friend’s birthday dinner-party! All around was fantastic. I always get nervous trying recipes for the first time for guests but this one really was easy to follow and came out perfectly. It took me about 3 additional minutes in the oven to bake and was moist, had a great texture, and not overly sweet. Honestly the batter was super compliant. It was almost dense and airy at the same time?? I had plenty of extra glaze leftover and the decor is quite aesthetic. I read a couple of other recipes on “Persian love cakes” and opted for this one due to the more simplistic nature and because this recipe uses GRAMS!!! The rose flavor was very subtle but I wonder about the different brands and their intensity. I got mine from a Mediterranean market/grocery.
We all loved it and I would make this again in a heartbeat.
This looks amazing! I’m going to try it either way, but — is there any part of this recipe that could be replaced by/added to with maple syrup or pinecone jam? I love the density and flavor of cakes like these, but I’m trying to stay on a theme too… willing to sacrifice the theme if the answer is no.
Just querying grams of sugar, 11/2 cups is 350g is this a typo.
It’s actually 300g for 1.5 cups (1 cup = 200g). Fixed!
Thankyou for that.Will be perfect,also can i use greek yoghurt instead of buttermilk?sSame amount?
You can but thin it out with water first so it has the consistency of buttermilk – so maybe take out two tablespoons of the yogurt from the half cup and replace those with water.
Love to make this for a 21st.How many would it serve please?
I think 12-14 people depending on how thick you cut the slices
I love everything about this cake!
So yummy ????, my family loves them
Looks delicious better start baking so moist yum