You’re going to fall in love with this Persian Love Cake!!! Made with semolina and almond meal with a hint of citrus and subtle spices, this cake is soaked with hot syrup to make it moist and add sweetness.
Straightforward to make, a beautiful cake for afternoon tea or to finish off a Persian or Middle Eastern themed meal – try these slow cooked Persian Lamb Shanks and Crispy Saffron Rice!
Welcome to the 3rd and final instalment of PERSIAN WEEK! A week in which I’m sharing 4 recipes so you can make your very own Persian feast at home!!
Here’s what’s on the menu for your Persian Feast:
Persian Lamb Shank recipe – the main event! Braised until fall apart tender in a beautiful aromatic broth. Incredibly easy with every day spices you’ll find at any supermarket!
Persian Saffron Rice – that golden, crispy beauty… and it tastes as amazing as it looks!!!
Persian Cucumber Tomato Salad (in the Lamb Shanks recipe)- lovely and fresh, with a little sprinkle of Sumac for a touch of Persian exoticness; and
Persian L♥ve Cake (today’s recipe)- made with semolina and almond meal, this cake is soaked with a lemon-rosewater syrup, with a hint of citrus and spice flavours. You’re going to LOVE this Persian Looooove cake!
AND SO THE STORY GOES…
A Persian girl madly in love with a Prince made a beautiful cake with magical powers to make him fall in love with her.
As for whether it worked – I never got to the bottom of that. Some say they lived happily ever after, others say he never returned her love – though hopefully she got to eat the whole cake herself.
Now – I can’t promise that this cake has magical powers to woo your secret crush (whether it be George Clooney or a boy band) but I can promise that it tastes as enchanting as that story (despite the unsatisfying ending to the fairytale!!)
ABOUT THIS PERSIAN LOVE CAKE
This is a cake is made with semolina and almond meal instead of the usual flour. It has subtle spicing from cardamom and nutmeg, a hint of citrus from orange and some lovely tang from lemon in the syrup.
Most people say that the best part about making this cake is pouring the syrup over the cake when it’s fresh out of the oven so it soaks right through, adding sweetness as well as moisture.
I’d argue that and say that the most satisfying part is jabbing lots and lots of holes in the cake.
It’s totally not in the spirit of a Persian Love Cake. More Basic Instinct, really.
But I cannot lie. It’s my favourite part! (Other than eating it, of course). – Nagi x
PS Decorated the Persian way with dried edible rose petals from Essential Ingredient, my favourite gourmet food store. I spend hours in there every time I go and always treat myself to something a little special. Last time it was the pictured rose petals. 🌹🌹🌹
A PERSIAN FEAST
Persian Lamb Shanks | Tachin – Saffron Baked Rice | Persian Chopped Salad (in Lamb Shanks recipe) | This Persian L♥ve Cake
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Persian Love Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups (200g) almond meal (almond flour)
- 1 1/2 cups (165g) semolina
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1.5 tsp ground cardamom
- 120g / 8 tbsp unsalted butter , at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) brown sugar , packed
- 3/4 cup (150g) white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup (250g) plain yoghurt
- Zest of one orange
- 50g / 2 oz raw pistachios , chopped or slivered (or almonds)
Syrup:
- 1/3 cup (85 ml) lemon juice
- 1/3 cup (70g) white sugar
- 1 tsp+ rosewater (adjust to taste, start with less)
Instructions
- Preheat oven 180C/350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan). Grease and line a 22cm/9″ cake pan.
- Mix almond meal, semolina, baking powder, nutmeg and cardamon in bowl.
- Beat butter and both sugars with an electric beater until incorporated. Add eggs, beat until smooth. Then add yoghurt and orange zest, beat until smooth.
- Add dry ingredients. Stir until mixed through.
- Pour into pan, smooth 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 (poke all the way through). Pour warm syrup over while cake still hot. Leave to soak for 1 hour+ before removing from pan. Cool then slice to serve.
- Pictured decorated with dried rose petals. Alternative: no decorations (pistachios alone look great!), dust with icing / confectionary sugar, of a Lemon Glaze (use this one)
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.
Recipe Notes:
- General note: cakes made without flour like this can tend to be a bit crumbly and dry. This cake is not – the moisture comes from the syrup poured over the cake while it’s hot!
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
Me – in Vietnam.
Dozer – with the golden retriever boarder, running wild with his friends.
Can you or, have you actually, made this with orange blossom water instead of rose water?
This cake is identified as gluten-free but contains semolina and semolina is made from durum wheat. Calling it gluten free is misleading and coukd lead to harm to those who are allergic to or intolerant of gluten. Please correct this.
Absolutely love this recipe. Have made twice now. Wanted to make as mini cupcakes. How long would I need to bake these for in a mini cupcake tin of 24?
Outstanding! I added a thick lemon sugar glaze. A keeper 🙂 Thanks 🙂
Hi, I tried to make the cake but the ingredients list doesn’t have any baking powder listed, could you pls amend the ingredients list. Thanks
Why would this be listed as Gluten free when it has semolina?
This cake is absolutely delicious, very similar texture and taste to Indian halwa! As others had suggested in their comments, I used orange juice in place of lemon juice.
I made this for my mum’s birthday, and everyone loved it. The middle sank quite a bit more than I expected, but other than that it was great. Excellent flavour and really nice moist texture thanks to the syrup. Will definitely make again.
Hi, would Orange Blossom water work instead of the Rose water?
Hi, I searched the site for gluten free cake and this came up. It should be removed from a gluten free search as it is not gluten free due to the semolina. A lot of people may not realise what semolina is.
I have made this cake a few times now. I would suggest leaving it in for the full hour, the times I have pulled it out and tested it earlier than that has caused it to sink in the middle.
On the flip side, just did the Big Morning Tea today and cooked this. I won a best plate competition with it. I love the refreshing flavour and have been giving the link to the recipe out a few times after its success!
Delish! Thank you Nagi for your hard work!
I made this with just using a whisk and turned out fine. Instead of semolina, I used gluten free flour. I also subbed half of the butter with olive oil, and used dairy free yogurt.
Maybe next time I’ll try it with a little more syrup and use orange juice as well as the lemon juice. Such a flavorful cake with a beautiful texture. Everyone loved it!
This is so close to being Vegan!! How do I substitute the eggs? I’d love to make it for my daughter 🙂
I’ve made this recipe a couple of times and it’s wonderful! 🙂 A very nice cake to give as a gift.
Learned the hard way not to open oven at any stage in baking because my first try did collapse a bit due to my ‘checking’, second try hands off was perfect.
Has anyone made this as muffins or cupcakes? I’d love to try baking in muffin tray but afraid of ruining it!
I just made these as cupcakes and baked them for 20 minutes instead of 50 minutes – they turned out amazing!!
I made that same mistake but even the ‘failed’ version was delicious. Learned my lesson!!
Is there a substitute for rosewater? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
I made the cake for a second time this afternoon and the same thing happened, the cake sank in the middle.
Just made your delicious Persian love cake. It looks great but it sank in the middle. Any one have any ideas what I did incorrectly?
I followed the recipe exactly.
Made as per previous commenter in a Bundt for 45mins. Had some excess batter and baked those a cupcakes for 25min. Both had a gorgeous flavour but the crumb was crumbly. It was not dry. Because both baked for diff times, and were both crumbly, I’m inclined not to think the cakes were over baked. Is it supposed to be a crumbly cake? Any ideas about what went wrong? Still delicious!
My absolute favourite cake. I have to find a replacement for the semolina to make it gluten-free. Someone suggested buckwheat flour, but that may be too strong a flavour. Also, if I wanted to replace the almonds with a different nut, which would be best? Walnuts, cashews and pistachios are used in Middle Eastern food. Would any work?
I’ve made this cake several times and it never fails. I substitute the semolina with GF flour and have used both lemon and orange juice in the syrup. Both delicious. I think hazelnut meal might also work as a substitute for almond meal.
I substituted buckwheat flour and it worked well.
How about cornmeal? It has similar texture, I think it should work great
Hello everyone
I’d appreciate your feedback. The recipe calls for either 2 cups or 200 g of almond meal by my reckoning a cup is 250 g. So I’m confused about the actual quantity needed for the almond meal.
For the almond meal What measure did you use?
Cheers, bi