This high altitude Persian love cake is buttery, moist and nutty, with beautiful flavors like almonds, pistachios, citrus, cardamom and dried rose petals.
You might also love this chocolate pistachio layer cake, lemon pistachio tea cake, and no churn pistachio ice cream.

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What is a Persian love cake?
A Persian love cake is a moist and flavorful almond cake, usually one layer, drizzled with icing and decorated with pistachios and dried rose petals. Ingredients like cardamom, buttermilk, rose water, citrus and pistachios add beautiful color and flavor to this romantic cake, making it perfect for Valentine’s Day.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No Mixer Needed. Both the cake and the icing come together easily with just a bowl and whisk.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Citrus. To add a bright flavor to my cake, I used the zest and juice from both lemons and oranges. You could also use lime zest/juice, or maybe even grapefruit juice in the icing.
- Dried Edible Rose Petals. These make a beautiful decoration on top of the cake, but I also used them to flavor the cake itself. I found some at my local Savory Spice Shop, but you can also buy edible rose petals on Amazon.
- Almond Flour. If you don’t have almond flour, you can also use your food processor or ninja to finely chop some raw almonds, which works just as well for this recipe.
- Pistachios. I used salted, shelled pistachios for my cake.
- Spices. You’ll need vanilla and almond extracts, as well as ground cardamom. I also added a pinch of ground sumac, which has bright, citrusy notes, but if you don’t have any, you can just leave it out.
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly spray a 9 inch round cake pan with non-stick baking spray, and line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper.
- In a bowl, combine the sugar, orange zest, lemon zest and dried rose petals. Use your fingers to rub everything into the sugar until fragrant.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter until nutty, golden brown milk solids form at the bottom of the pan. This process might take about 10 minutes. First the butter will hiss and splatter as the water evaporates, then as it quiets down, a layer of foam will form on top of the butter. This means the butter is done. Immediately remove from the heat, and scrape the butter, including the brown milk solids, into a large bowl. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- To the sugar mixture, add the cooled brown butter, eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract, milk and sour cream, whisking until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, chopped pistachios, baking powder, salt, cardamom and sumac. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, whisking just until moistened.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes before turning the cake out onto a serving plate to add the icing.
Icing
- In a bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, orange juice, lemon juice and vanilla, until smooth. Pour over the cake.
- Before the icing sets, sprinkle with sliced almonds, chopped pistachios and dried rose petals.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Although I used dried rose petals since that’s what I already have on hand, rose water is typically used in a Persian love cake. Rose water is more like an extract, and will have a much stronger flavor, so you should use less. Based on reviews, I’d suggest no more than 1/4 – 1/2 tsp to start with for this cake recipe.
Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!
You Might Also Like
Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!
Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
High Altitude Persian Love Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- 9 Inch Round Cake Pan
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 1 tsp freshly grated orange zest
- 1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
- 1 tbsp edible dried rose petals
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tsp almond extract
- ⅔ cup whole milk, room temperature
- ⅓ cup sour cream (or buttermilk, unsweetened Greek yogurt or kefir)
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup almond flour (or very finely chopped almonds)
- ¼ cup finely chopped pistachios
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- ⅛ tsp ground sumac (optional)
Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- sliced almonds, chopped pistachios, and edible dried rose petals, for decorating
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly spray a 9 inch round cake pan with non-stick baking spray, and line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper.
- In a bowl, combine the sugar, orange zest, lemon zest and dried rose petals. Use your fingers to rub everything into the sugar until fragrant.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter until nutty, golden brown milk solids form at the bottom of the pan. This process might take about 10 minutes. First the butter will hiss and splatter as the water evaporates, then as it quiets down, a layer of foam will form on top of the butter. This means the butter is done. Immediately remove from the heat, and scrape the butter, including the brown milk solids, into a large bowl. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- To the sugar mixture, add the cooled brown butter, eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract, milk and sour cream, whisking until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, chopped pistachios, baking powder, salt, cardamom and sumac. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, whisking just until moistened.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes before turning the cake out onto a serving plate to add the icing.
Icing
- In a bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, orange juice, lemon juice and vanilla, until smooth. Pour over the cake.
- Before the icing sets, sprinkle with sliced almonds, chopped pistachios and dried rose petals.
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