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Cardamom cake with saffron cream cheese frosting is my riff on a Persian Love Cake. Cardamom, saffron, and rosewater are classic flavours in many dishes throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and West Asia. Ryan and I love Moroccan bastilla, a filo-like pastry stuffed with pigeon, sugar, and rosewater. Cardamom is a quintessential flavouring in rich Saudi coffee. And saffron, the most expensive spice in the world, adds amazing colour and seasoning to rice, ice cream, and myriad other dishes. Having grown up in the Middle East, we obviously love these tastes, and this cake includes all of them.
The cake is flavoured with cardamom and rosewater and a hint of lemon. Some recipes will have you add saffron to the cake batter, but I kept it for the frosting instead. Also, other recipes add ground almonds too but I didn’t have any so I left it out. I had a package of cream cheese kicking around our fridge and wanted to make something with it, so I ultimately decided to use it in frosting. The cream cheese adds a deliciously tangy dimension to the frosting, simliar to the touch of lemon in the cake batter.
If you don’t have rosewater, you can use orange blossom water which has a similar flavour.
I’ve baked this cake in an 8″ square pan, but you can also bake in in a round tin instead. The cardamom cake with saffron cream cheese frosting is a versatile cake; you can bring it to a party or just eat a piece by yourself at home.
Decorate this cake with a sprinkling of chopped pistachios and dried rose petals if you like. However, the golden saffron cream cheese frosting is quite showstopping enough that you can leave the pistachios and rose petals off.
Cardamom Cake with Saffron Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
- 3 Tbsp canola oil
- 1 cup sugar white
- 2 eggs large
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp rosewater
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
For the Frosting
- 1 Tbsp rosewater
- 1/2 tsp saffron
- 250 g cream cheese softened (or 8 oz)
- 1/4 cup butter at room temperature
- 2 cups icing sugar
To Finish (optional)
- 2 Tbsp chopped pistachios
- 1 Tbsp dried rose petals
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8" square pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream with butter, oil, and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition.
- Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, rose water, and vanilla. Beat well.
- Add the flour, cardamom, baking powder, and salt. Beat just until mixed.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.
For the Frosting
- While the cake is cooling, prepare the frosting. In a small bowl, mix the rose water and saffron and let sit for 10 minutes to steep.
- Beat the cream cheese and butter together until soft and creamy.
- Add the icing sugar and ths rose water-saffron mixture to the cream cheese. Beat to incorporate.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake. Sprinkle chopped pistachios and dried rose petals over the frosting.
- Serve at room temperature.
You may have noticed that most of our recipes on the blog are desserts. Despite cooking dinner almost every day, baking desserts is what I like to feature here. Cakes especially photograph well!
If you liked this cardamom cake with saffron cream cheese frosting, then check out some of our other cake recipes here:
- Easy Angel Food Cake
- Cardamom cake with rosewater whipped cream (similar flavours to this cake, but without the saffron)
- Chocolate marble pound cake
- Carrot cake with cream cheese icing
- Cinnamon streusel coffee cake (if you’re a fan of cardamom, add some to this cake too!)
- Black chocolate bundt cake
- Caribbean buttered rum cake
- Maulwurftorte – German molehill cake
I love cardamom. That looks delicious. Thanks so much for the recipe.
-Soma
Thank you, we hope you like it!
That is a gorgeous cake.
Thank you!
Such a unique flavor combination!
This does look so so good and tempting. Thank you for sharing your post on our Linky, May you have a blessed Christmas, and see you at our next Linkup on Jan 3, 2022. I have shared your post
Ooo sounds delicious x #pocolo
Looks really nice and beautiful. Thanks for sharing at Fiesta Friday party.
It looks nice and beautiful! Thanks for sharing at Fiesta Friday party.
What a beautiful cake!! And it sounds so delicious – Thanks for sharing at the Lazy Gastronome’s What’s for Dinnner party! Have a fabulous week!
[…] intrigued by this cake recipe from Meinhilde of Kiku Corner. I’ve never heard of a cake made with cardamom and saffron! The recipe was inspired by the […]
Cardamom is a unique spice. I use it in broccoli soup and it is wonderful in this cake.
I’m looking forward to another year of foodie inspiration when the FWF party starts up again this Friday, January 7th.
Hope to see you there!
Happy New Year!
Rachelle