Persian Love Cake is a fragrant rose, citrus, almond, and cardamom cake topped with dried rose petals and pistachios. It’s a great, easy recipe for when you want a sophisticated dessert without the fuss!
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 8-inch cake pan with butter or baking spray and line with parchment paper.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt.
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Add the sugar, lemon zest, and cardamom. Continue beating until very light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time scraping down the bowl between each egg. Beat in the rose water.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the flour mixture. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth to the edges.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to release it from the pan. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully invert the cake onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
For the glaze:
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and water until smooth. Place the cake, bottom side up on a cake stand or serving plate. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake and sprinkle with pistachios and rose petals. Store cake covered for up to 4 days.
Notes
Make your own almond flour. If you don’t have almond flour, you can make your own by processing blanched almonds in a food processor until finely ground. Just be sure that you don’t process for too long or you’ll make almond butter!
Optional: use freshly ground cardamom. Fresh cardamom seeds offer much more flavor and fragrance than store-bought powdered cardamom. Use a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle to crush the seeds into a powder.
Cool the cake completely before glazing. Allow the cake to cool to room temperature before adding the glaze to prevent the glaze from running off the sides of the cake.
Optional Variations. Add candied ginger as a garnish with the rose petals and pistachios for additional texture and a zing of spicy-sweet flavor. Additionally, if you can't find rose water, orange blossom water works just as well!