Description
This Persian love cake is perfect for celebrations! It’s a moist and dense cake beautifully balanced with orange, cardamom, almond in the cake, and rose and pistachio in the glaze.
Ingredients
- 1 medium-sized orange* (approx 210g)
Dry:
- 1 cup / 140g plain flour
- 1 cup / 100g almond flour (not almond meal)
- 1 cup / 225g granulated sugar (raw or white cane sugar are best)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cardamom powder*
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated is best)
Wet:
- ⅓ cup / 70ml neutral oil
- ¼ cup / 60g vegan yoghurt (plain or vanilla are best)
Glaze:
- ¾ cup / 90g icing sugar (aka confectioners sugar)
- 1 tablespoon rose water*
Decorate:
- Food grade rose petals
- Pistachios, chopped
- Orange zest (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (355 degrees Fahrenheit) line an 8-inch cake tin with parchment paper on the base, and oil the sides. Set aside.
- Place the orange in a small saucepan and cover with water, bring to a boil and cook on high heat for 15 minutes. It’s cooked when you can pierce the orange without too much resistance. Drain the water and set it aside.
- While the orange cooks, in a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.
- To a high-speed blender, add the wet ingredients with the cooked orange. The whole thing including the skin. Blend on high for around 90 seconds until you get a smooth thick liquid. You may have tiny chunks of orange; that is fine.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth out with the back of a spoon or spatula. The batter is pretty thick—Bake for 50 minutes – 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Let it cool completely before removing it from the cake tin.
- For the glaze, combine the glaze ingredients and pour it over the cake. The mix is quite thick, so you will have to work quickly before it sets. I like it thick; however, you can thin it out with another teaspoon of liquid if you want it to drip down the sides of the cake more.
- Decorate with rose petals, pistachios and orange zest, and it’s ready to enjoy.
Notes
Orange: Try and use an orange with a thin skin to avoid excess pith in your batter, which will make the cake slightly bitter.
Cardamom: If you can’t find cardamom powder, remove the seeds from the cardamom pod and turn them into a fine powder using your spice or coffee grinder.
Rosewater: Some rose water is stronger than others, so make sure you adjust to your taste. If using rose extract, start with ½ teaspoon for the icing and add the rest of the liquid with water or plant milk.
Please make sure you cool the cake completely before glazing it as otherwise, the glaze will run, and you’ll end up with a bit of a mess.
It’s important to use almond flour for this cake, not almond meal. There’s a difference. The flour is finely ground, ensuring the cake isn’t too dense.
Want to make ahead of time? This cake can be made ahead of time up to 2-3 days and stored at room temperature in an airtight container or with a cover like foil or cling wrap. Store it in the fridge if your environment is on the warmer side.
This cake is best consumed within a few days but will store at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.
Time: The time doesn’t include cooling time for cake.
- Diet: Vegan
