Persian Love Cake Cupcakes Recipe • Curious Cuisiniere (2024)

Persian love cake is a wonderfully aromatic cake flavored with rosewater, lemon and often cardamom. These Persian love cake cupcakes allow you to enjoy the delicious flavors in pretty and delicious individual servings!

Persian cooking has ancient roots, and while it has some similarities with neighboring cuisines, it also uses some distinct flavors.

Pomegranate is very popular, for example, such as in the classic stew fesenjan. You’ll also see many dishes combining a range of herbs like dill and cilantro, like kuku sabzi (Persian herb frittata) and sabzi polow mahi (herb rice with fish).

When it comes to Persian desserts and baking, some of the most common flavors are cardamom, saffron and rosewater.

And, this delicious treat has them all.

How did Persian love cake get its name?

It’s not entirely clear where the name came from. Many seem to believe it is based on a legend of a girl baking a cake with magical powers to win over a prince she was in love with.

While Persians do love their stories, it’s a little hard to tell if this is the origin of the name. After all, there’s no consistent ending to it. Some say it worked, others that he rebuffed the attempt, and others that he ate it then died from being allergic to an ingredient.

Another report I saw was that the name was first coined by Yasmin Khan, a British/Iranian/Pakistani food writer. Less interesting, but maybe more realistic.

I also read that the cake itself is, in fact, a relatively recent creation to highlight some favorite Iranian ingredients. So much so, that some Iranians are not aware of it and you will not find it in traditional cookbooks.

Love is an important theme in Iranian storytelling, and I imagine it might be just as true that the story was made to fit the cake.

Whatever the origins of the name (in English at least), there’s no denying that this is a beautifully flavored and pretty looking cake. With aromatic flavors inside, and decorative pistachio and rose petals on top, there’s a lot to love.

Variations in Persian love cake

Even being a relatively recent creation (assuming that’s the case), there are a few variations in what goes in to this Persian cake.

Rosewater is in pretty much all versions, and most use some or all of the following as well:

• cardamom
• lemon
• almonds
• saffron
• orange blossom water

Most recipes use at least part oil, if not all, rather than butter to help these aromatic flavors come through. Some use yogurt to help the cake stay moist, while others use a sweet drizzle over the warm cake (or both).

My Persian love cake cupcakes recipe

Here I’ve kept the key flavors, while avoiding making the list too long, and I’ve made them in cupcake form.

Making Persian love cake cupcakes is easier for us to get through (as I can make a smaller batch) and it’s fun to have ready-formed individual servings.

There are a couple things to bear in mind using rosewater, cardamom and saffron. All of them have pretty distinct flavors and so you want to make sure you don’t use too much. A little goes a long way, so don’t be tempted to add more until you have at least tried the recipe as it is once.

Also, rosewater can vary in strength, so if you know yours is on the stronger side, you may want to reduce the quantity used here.

Why is there both a drizzle and a glaze?

While it may seem an extra step, adding both the drizzle and glaze is definitely worthwhile, in my opinion.

The drizzle helps to add a little extra moisture and also adds the saffron flavor (true, you could bake it in, but I think it works better this way).

If you don’t really like the flavor of saffron, you can make the syrup without saffron instead. However, it is one of the quintessential Persian flavors, so some would argue it’s a must in there somewhere.

The glaze, meanwhile, is more decorative and to add a final bright flavor. Some make the glaze with rosewater or saffron, which you could also do, but I think lemon is my favorite for its fresh citrus finish.

I only added a very light glaze to these rather than a true frosting. You could easily double the glaze to make it a bit of a thicker coating.

I also admit to maybe being a little too eager to put the glaze on when the cupcakes were still very slightly warm, so it ran a bit more than I would typically want.

Hopefully you may have more patience, and so it will stay more to the middle. However, I think when you decorate with the pistachio and rose petals, then take a bite, you soon ignore it!

These Persian love cake cupcakes are wonderfully flavorful and aromatic. Less sweet than your typical cupcake, but just as tender and moist. And with flavors that transport you to ancient Persia, whether to a legend or otherwise.