This aromatic spongy Persian Almond Cardamom Pistachio Cake has been freely spiced with cardamom and is heavy on the eggs for a dense but moist cake. Instead of vegetable oil, we used our Pure Cottonseed Oil by our producer Acala Farms. More about that below.
Hey my friends, this week I have for you my new “favorite” coffee cake. I originally found it during my research for Passover desserts and unique desserts of Jewish holidays throughout the year. This cake recipe was featured in an article by An Iranian Seder in Beverly Hills with the name “Almond Cake With Cardamom and Pistachio.” This article is about an Iranian Jewish family who settled in California in 1979.
Here is a little history lesson I learned from reading this article:
“Iran has one of the oldest known Jewish communities, going back over 2,500 years to when Jews fled the land of Israel after the destruction of the First Temple.”
It’s pretty amazing to learn other country’s traditions. “Food and feasts were a part of life for us,” said Angella Nazarian, one of Mrs. Maddahi’s daughters, who has just published a memoir of the Iranian Jews’ arrival in the United States, titled “Life as a Visitor”. If you want to read more about this fantastic article, go to the New York Times.
The Persian Almond Cardamom Pistachio Cake Photoshoot
This cake is easy to make, but the best part was taking the photographs of the cake. Most of the time when I shoot food, I do it in the morning because the sunlight is more stable. My condo faces the city of Miami – the west side – and after 12:00 pm the sunlight hits my whole place and the light is too intense. So the mornings are best for a lot of indirect sunlight. Sometimes when there are a lot of clouds, the quality of lighting is unstable as the sun comes out, then behind a cloud, then back out again. Besides being extremely frustrating during the picture taking, the post-shoot editing part becomes too difficult to achieve the look I want.
This time I decided to shoot for the first time early in the evening to get a dark background with a bright food. It was a lot of fun and I got so excited that I ended up taking over 200 pictures. It was crazy!
I really love the flavor of this Persian Almond Cardamom Pistachio Cake. I love adding cardamom to any dish, savory or sweet, to give it an extra warm taste and aromatic fragrance.
If you are looking for more Jewish traditional dessert recipes for Hanukkah or Passover, check out these recipes.
- How to Make an Easy Rugelach with Jam Walnut Filling
- Walnut Macaroon Thumbprint Cookies with Fig Preserves
- Lemony Almond Macaroons
- Hazelnut Citrus Torte
This is a flour-less cake made with almond meal, and to accentuate the flavor I added almond extract. One thing that is different from the original recipe is that I used our Pure Cottonseed Oil from Acala Farms instead of vegetable oil.
Benefits of Pure Cottonseed Oil from Acala Farms.
Acala Farm’s cottonseed oils embody a new generation of cottonseed oil that is heart-healthy (zero cholesterol), with a high smoke point (425+). Each different flavor-infused oil presents a strong flavor profile and they are definitely fun to cook with because of all the different flavors offered. Acala Farm’s oils are Gluten-free, Kosher, Vegan, Certified Pesticide-free, and a Product of USA.
Check out some of my other amazingly delicious recipes using Acala’s cottonseed oils:
- Stuffed Roasted Chicken with Artichoke Lemon Pesto and Butternut Squash Puree.
- Naan Bread with Cilantro Flavored Oil
- Kohlrabi Salad with Edamame, Chickpeas, Apple, and Cilantro Cottonseed Dressing Recipe
- Pumpkin Hummus with Toasted Cumin Cottonseed Oil
Have a fun week!
Carlos
Check out more cake recipes in the links below :
- Pumpkin Tiramisu Cake with Pumpkin Spice Mascarpone Cream
- Pumpkin Carrot Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Filling
- Pecan Pie Bundt Cake
- Lingonberry Cake
- Lingonberry Hazelnut Coffee Cake
- Death by Chocolate Cake
Persian Almond Cardamom Pistachio Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 10-12 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Persian Almond Cardamom Pistachio Cake is a moist and aromatic dessert recipe. It can be served during Passover using Kosher’s confectionary sugar and matzo meal instead of almond flour. If you want more of an Iranian flavor, add two TableSpoons of rose water. This cake is delicious with a hot Persian Tea (Chai) or Turkish coffee.
Ingredients
- ½ cup Pure Cottonseed Oil, plus additional for pan
- 7 large eggs, separated
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 TableSpoon almond extract
- 4 ½ cups plus 1 TableSpoon almond flour
- 2 teaSpoons ground cardamom
- 1 to 2 TableSpoons confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
- 3 to 4 TableSpoons finely chopped pistachio nuts, for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9-inch round or square pan and set aside.
- Using a stand mixer, whisk egg whites until stiff but not dry, and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar, and whisk to blend. Whisk in almond extract and oil. Add almond flour and cardamom.
- Gently stir a third of the whites into the batter, then gently fold in the rest until just incorporated.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and finish cooling on a rack. To decorate, dust with confectioners’ sugar and chopped pistachios.
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Middle East
Nutrition
- Calories: 524
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 55.1 mg
- Fat: 29.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 61.4 g
- Fiber: 25.7 g
- Protein: 20.8 g
- Cholesterol: 108.5 mg
Products and displays used in this recipe:
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i am so drooling right now. This look really good!!! for some reason i can smell it just by the look of those photos. Thank you for sharing. I must try this.
Hello Mei, This cake is really GOOD! I was drooling too when I was writing the post. Let us know if you try and share the picture too. Thank you for stopping by.
WOW, this looks scrumptious! Wish I could bake a cake like that 😮 I’ve only done brownies, cookies, cupcakes, rice cakes and some flans, never a real cake. I feel like I need more practice if I want to bake a perfect looking (and hopefully, tasting) cake like that!
Hi Kim, This cake is really easy to make. Give it a try!
Thank you for your comment.
This cake sounds absolutely divine, especially with all that gorgeous cardamom and pistachio. But mostly I just really loved reading about your photographic adventure! It’s so easy to find and stick with a routine when it comes to shooting, but amazing how much we can learn from mixing things up and getting out of that comfort zone. Plus your photos just look gorgeous too – nice work! 😀
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Hi Laura, I feel honor to receive such a wonderful compliment from you about my photos. I’m still in the learning process to find my personal style. I’m a big fan of your blog and LOVE your photos!!!
The cake is a winner!
Aww thanks Carlos, and likewise! Love checking in to see what you’re cooking up next. Keep up the delicious work hahah. 😀
The cake looks absolutely fantastic and so delicious! Can’t wait to try it. I have never heard of cottonseed oil before and that you can use it in recipes. Will have to give it a try soon.
Hello Neli, I’m so glad that you discovered cottonseed oil. It’s a very easy substitute oil due to the neutral flavor. Check out this video.
Also, check the amazing flavored oils in our store.
Such a pretty cake. I love pistachio.
Thank you Sandi! We love pistachios too. What’s not to love?
I love almond cakes and pistachio and pistachio and cardamom is definitely a match made in heaven of flavors!!
★★★★★
Hi Manju, then you have the best of both worlds with this cake. Give is a try
This sounds delicious! I love cardamom. Must make this soon.
Hi Julie. Thank you for your comment. Carlos loves using cardamom in a bunch of his recipes lately. Do try out the recipe.
I tried this by itself today (made two half recipes), and it was very nice although very dense and a bit eggy by itself. In one I reduced the sugar by half. I’d been looking for a good Persian or North Indian almond or pistachio cake, and so far this is my favorite in part because of how dense this was; I’ve been looking for something that will be part of a larger dessert. I feel given the density it will be able to hold up well, and it also tasted good in the version with half the sugar–important because some of the components in the larger dessert cannot be made less sweet. I may reduce the egg yolks by two as well.
I am going to be incorporating this in an elaborate Persian/Mughal-inspired dessert. I’m using an almond and pistachio shortbread base, a round of this wonderful little cake with the sugar reduced by half and filled with a button of pistachio kakaland (an Indian fresh cheese sweet), topped with a spiced dark chocolate mousse (cardamon, clove, cinnamon, and red Kampot peppercorns) with bits of candied ginger incorporated into it, and then all enclosed in a chai tea flavored glaze.
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Hi Jarrod, I feel so happy to read your feedback for this recipe. For what I read I see you have a lot experience making these kinds of desserts. I’m very curious to find out how your Persian/Mughal-inspired dessert will look and taste. The flavors that you are adding to this dessert are amazing, my mouth is watering right now thinking about your recipe. I would love to see the pictures of how they turn out. Thank you so much for making this recipe and sharing your thoughts.
Thanks, Carlos. I’m back re-reading the recipe today! I will send you a photo tomorrow when I finally put it all together.
I tried the mousse today on its own to try it by itself with the ginger (I’d made it without the ginger before), and incorporating the candied ginger was a bad idea as it overwhelmed all the more delicate flavors. So now I might use a sliver as a garnish. I’m excited to see how people like the final product!
★★★★★
Hi Jarrod, I’m so happy to see you here again:). I’m looking forward to seeing your recipe.
Carlos, sorry it took me so long, but I Tweeted a picture of the dessert to @Spoonabilities!
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Hi Jarrod, I just saw the tweet. Thank you so much. The touch covering the cake looks pretty nice. What was the final taste result?
I made this cake for Passover and it was delicious! I am not sure why more Americans don’t have a taste for Cardamom, but I think it is such a treat. Cake batter was heavy so you have to be careful not to overwork it when folding in the egg whites. I had my doubts, but it really came out perfectly! Thank you~
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Thank you Ellen for letting us know you made this Almond Pistachio Cake for Passover. We often wonder if people actually make our recipes, so it’s a wonderful thing to hear comments like yours. Yes, cardamom is a great treat that is often unknown here in the USA.