Persian Almond Rose Cake

Persian Almond Rose Cake is one of those cakes you’ll love even if you typically only eat cake for the frosting. Trust me, I get it, I’m a frosting shots girl. Cake is usually that thing that’s holding the frosting up off the plate. But this cake is more of a snacking situation. A delicate bite you wash down with tea. It’s basically a sandwich…don’t quote me on that. With delicate flavors of cardamom, rose and lemon, this Persian Almond Rose Cake is a perfect gluten-free light and easy dessert. 

Anyways. I had been mulling around a simple cardamom snack cake in my head, then I saw THIS one pop up on Sarah’s Instagram. And instead of admitting defeat, like I usually do when someone else publishes a recipe I had just been thinking about before I can beat them to the punch, I decided to use her as inspiration. I scaled the cake down, made it gluten-free and kept ALL the flavor.

First of all, I don’t want you to feel like you need to skip this cake because you don’t have all the “fancy” ingredients. If you look at the ingredient list, you probably do! Except for that rose water… BUT!

But I didn’t have it either! Gasp. Remember all those roses I had from that ginormous bag I bought? The ones that I used in our Rose Mocha Iced Latte? Yup, I used those to make my own rose water!

Basically I just steeped roses (in a tea ball) in hot water, making a rose tea. Until it was crazy potent. Like, 10 minutes. Then I let that cool and I used it for my recipe. Here’s a little disclaimer: homemade won’t be as strong as the bottled stuff, so you’ll use more homemade rose water than if you have some in a bottle. If you have the bottled goodies, just disregard my “down on the farm” method of procuring some.

Another thing I love about this cake is it doesn’t need a frosting. The flavors in the cake are so beautiful, if you cover them up with frosting, they’ll be lost. A simple dusting of powdered sugar is plenty; a sprinkling of nuts or homemade rose dukkah takes it over the top.

Calling it a “dukkah” was the closest thing I could think of for describing it. That and I have a little Molly Yeh rolling around in my head at all times. But I simply chopped up some rose petals, cashews (because that’s what I had on hand) and lemon zest; muddled that all around with a tiny tiny tiny pinch of Kosher salt and a bit of coconut sugar. Voila! But honestly, a handful of chopped pistachios would’ve been more than sufficient if you don’t feel like making a topping. {after trying the cake WITH the topping though, it really is all perfection}

Persian Almond Rose Cake
Recipe by Melissa @ Treats With A Twist
Inspired by Sarah’s recipe
Makes one 6” cake

INGREDIENTS
6 Tbs softened butter
½ cup coconut sugar
1 tsp. honey
2 eggs
1 tsp. cardamom
2 tsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. baking powder
½ cup superfine almond flour
1 cup sweet white rice flour
¼ tsp. Kosher salt
1 ½ Tbs. rose water*
Topping: 2 Tbs. chopped cashews + 1 Tbs. dried rose petals + 1 tsp. lemon zest + 1 tsp. coconut sugar + tiny pinch of sea salt all mixed together
Powdered sugar

METHOD
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 6” cake pan and set aside.
In your stand mixer, cream together the butter and coconut sugar for 2 minutes. Then add the honey and eggs, one at a time, until completely mixed in. Next, add the cardamom, lemon zest and vanilla and beat together for 1 minute.
Turn off your mixer and add all of your dry ingredients and rose water. Turn your mixer on low and let the batter be pulled together until just mixed.
Scoop the batter into your baking pan and smooth the top. Bake for 28-35 minutes, checking with a toothpick for doneness (your cake will be a beautiful golden color).

Let the cake cool on a wire rack, remove from the cake pan and let cool completely before topping.

I top mine with a generous shake of powdered sugar and a sprinkling of my own “rose dukkah” (topping listed in ingredients above). It would also be beautiful sprinkled with pistachios or toasted almonds, pomegranate arils and flecks of rose petal.
Enjoy!

NOTES
*Since I don’t have a bottle of rose water, I steeped 1 Tbs. of food-grade dried rose petals in a few Tbs. of boiling hot water for 5-7minutes, or until the water was very strongly permeated. If you have a bottle of rose water, though, you can use that.

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