High Altitude Persian Love Cake
This Persian love cake is buttery, moist and nutty, with beautiful flavors like almonds, pistachios, citrus, cardamom and dried rose petals.
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.
Notes
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
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