Persian love cakes for Valentine's Day

A more romantic, shmooshy recipe for Valentine's Day you will not find. Blessed with pistachios, a gorgeous drizzling of rose water-yoghurt icing and a story as beautiful as their looks, these little baby cakes have everything going for them. 

While the internet seems to be failing me on the story behind this recipe - there are numerous versions of the recipe itself as well as how it got it's name, So I'm going to pick my favourite. In the name of Valentine's Day... 

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful woman who's heart yearned for the love of a handsome Persian prince. And because we all know the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, she baked him a spiced, fragrant cake in the hopes that at the first taste, he would fall hopelessly in love with her...

Whether or not he did indeed fall in love with her, is a mystery, but if it were up to my tastebuds, I'd have married that woman on the spot. 

So if you are in need of a little baked magic to make your prince fall in love with you, give this recipe a try. 

But if the cake doesn't work, remember... Forget love, and rather fall in chocolate. 

Persian love cakes

If you're not a fan of rose water, these cakes would be equally delicious with a glaze made from orange blossom water or lemon zest. 

Makes 14

100g blanched almonds

100g pistachios

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

150g butter, cubed

225g self-raising flour

185g castor sugar

3 eggs

225ml full cream plain yoghurt

Icing

100ml full cream plain yoghurt

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

Squeeze of lemon juice

Few drops of rose water, to taste

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour 14 small cannele or mini bundt molds (alternatively make a 20cm cake). 

Place the almonds and pistachios in a food processor and process until fine. Add the cardamom, cinnamon, butter, flour and sugar and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. 

Transfer to a bowl and combine with the eggs and yoghurt. 

Spoon into the prepared molds and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cakes are springy to the touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean. 

Allow to cool slightly then turn out and cool completely. 

Trim the tops off the cakes so they can stand straight. 

For the icing, combine the yoghurt, icing sugar and rose water to form a glaze then drizzle over the cakes. 

Decorate with crushed pistachios and crystallized rose petals, if desired. 

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SHAKE AND BAKE
Because there is only one thing better than cake, and that's cake with a glass of a little something, I'll be posting my suggestions on what you should be drinking while tucking into that slice. 

DRINK THIS Lanique and Bubbles
Lanique is a fragrant spirit made from distilled rose petals and who's history and story is as romantic as the cake which I have paired it with. It's delicious in a gin and tonic, but a dry bubbly brings out it's floral characteristics and is just plain yummy with the pistachios and cardamom in the cake. 

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OTHER RECIPES YOU MIGHT LIKE:
Chocolate fondant (liquid-centred chocolate pudding)
One-cup yoghurt cake with passionfruit frosting
Red velvet raspberry sweetie pies

Blueberry (cheesecake) muffins

They say muffins are just cupcakes without make-up on and if that's the case then my blueberry cheesecake version doesn't technically classify as a muffin... But muffins are a perfectly acceptable breakfast item which means you can safely get away with tucking into these before 11am without a guilty conscience. And the blueberries? Well, they're a superfood I'll have you know!

The muffins in question are made using a recipe by Stork Bake margarine and the fab people from their I love Baking SA page asked me to give it a test drive. I, of course, had to put my own decadent spin on it - you know, just to show how versatile it is. So of course, extra sugar and cream cheese were involved. The original recipe however is perfect for a kid-friendly lunchbox snack (considering we're still in the back-to-school swing of things). But smear the leftovers with creamy frosting and you have a moms-only version perfect for tea time!

The Lunchbox Blueberry Muffin 

(that is, if there are still some left for lunchboxes and they haven't all been eaten still hot out the oven!)

This recipe is so dead easy, you need to be seriously skilled to make a flop of it, but just incase I've added a few of my own baking notes and comments in to help.

Blueberry Muffins

Serves 8 (I got 18 regular-sized muffins from my batch)

125g fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen as they tend to have a better texture once baked. I also tossed the blueberries with a little flour to stop them all sinking to the bottom of the muffin) 
120g Stork Bake margarine (the recipe doesn't specify so I melted the Stork Bake) 
275g plain flour 
250ml skimmed milk 
100g sugar 
1 egg 
2 tsp vanilla essence 
1 tbsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 200°C and place paper cases into a muffin tin. 

In a first bowl, mix the egg with the Stork Bake margarine, sugar and vanilla essence. In another bowl, mix the flour with the milk and the baking powder. Add the egg/margarine mixture in the flour mixture and stir in well. (I used the standard method of making muffins and combined all my dry ingredients together then all my wet ingredients and added the wet to the dry, mixing until the batter was just combined.Careful not to overstir or you'll get tough muffins. Nobody likes a tough muffin.)

Finally stir in the blueberries and pour the preparation in the prepared muffin tin. Bake the muffins for around 25 minutes or until the tops are springy to the touch.

Blueberry cheesecake muffins

(ie. blueberry muffins with make-up on)

The pimped-up version of the lunchbox muffin with a gooey blueberry centre and cream cheese frosting. Yum.

Blueberry cheesecake muffins

Makes 18

1 batch blueberry muffin batter (follow recipe above to just before the blueberries are added)

125g frozen blueberries

1/4 cup blueberry jam

Cheesecake frosting

100g Stork Bake margarine, softened

400g icing sugar

250g smooth full fat cream cheese

zest and juice of 1 small lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Extra blueberries, to garnish (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200°C and place paper cases into a muffin tin. Pour the plain muffin batter in the prepared muffin tin, filling the cups halfway. Combine the blueberries with the blueberry jam then drop a small spoonful of blueberry mixture in the middle of each muffin before adding in the remaining batter. Only fill the cases ¾ full. Bake the muffins for around 25 minutes or until golden brown and springy to the touch. To make the frosting, cream the Stork and icing sugar until light and fluffy then beat in the cream cheese, zest, juice and extract. Frost the muffins with the icing and decorate with the fresh blueberries. 

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Caramel latte loaf cake

Caramel is the new vanilla. The food world has fallen in love with the flavour and though it will never be better, caramel is rather like chocolate's sexy cousin. It's headily sweet and totally decadent. Add a pinch of salt to the mix and you have an earth-shattering combination that is basically the crack cocaine of the culinary world. The reason for this? Consuming fat, sugar and salt all together is a serious sensory overdrive for our brains - it releases dopamine and adrenaline and totally gets our neurons fired up. Exactly the way drugs do.

 And before you feel guilty about shovelling another spoonful of caramel straight out the jar, don't, because genetically we're supposed to be attracted to foods with this tantalising trifector. It's a matter of survival people. We need salt because we can't produce our own. We need fat for energy and our sugar cravings are linked to being able to tell which foods are edible. So, make this caramel latte loaf cake and then enjoy every morsel guilt-free, because you can't fight genetics. 

Caramel latte loaf cake

Makes 2

230g Stork Bake margarine, softened

230g sugar

4 eggs

250g cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

½ cup tinned caramel

2 tsp corn flour

30ml espresso

Caramel cream cheese frosting

240g cream cheese

4 tbsp Stork Bake margarine, softened

½ cup tinned caramel

1 tsp vanilla

3 ½ cups icing sugar

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line 2 standard loaf tins.

Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs slowly, one at a time until completely incorporated. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt then stir into the margarine mixture. Divide the batter in two and mix the caramel, cornflour and espresso into one batch. Spoon alternate types of batter into the loaf tins to create a blotchy affect. Then, using a skewer, gently swirl it around in the batter to marble the cake. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

To make the icing, cream the cream cheese and margarine together until light and fluffy. Then add the caramel, vanilla, icing sugar and salt. Use to ice the cooled cake.

Can't get enough of caramel? Try this Sticky caramel pudding, or classic creme caramel or how about some caramelised chocolate?

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