Fresh Strawberry Filling, Pistachio and Rose-Petal Garnish

Skip the chocolate this year and make this for your Valentine.

It’s subtly and intriguingly flavored. In a way, it’s demure … and yet its layers of flavor seem endless. Because of the way the components are laid out – rosewater and saffron in the frosting, lemon and cardamom in the cake, strawberry in the filling – you’re able to sense each flavor individually while at the same enjoying the way they meld into a well balanced whole. In terms of texture, the cream makes the perfect companion for the cake, which is ultra-light.

For the cake

Ingredients for a 2-layer, 8-inch chiffon, serving 12:

9¾ oz. sugar (about 1 1/3 cups)
5¾ oz. cake flour (about 1 1/3 cups)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp + a pinch of coarse salt
3 oz. egg yolks (from 4 large eggs)
2½ tsp cardamom
Grated zest of one lemon
4 oz. water (1/2 cup)
5½ oz. canola or saffron oil (about ½-cup + 2½ Tbs)
6¼ oz. egg whites (from 5-6 large eggs)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

How to do it:

1. Place the sugar into a food processor, and process until superfine, about 30 seconds. Set aside.
2. Butter the bottom – but not the sides – of 2 nonstick, 8-inch cake pans. Line pan bottoms with parchment paper; butter parchment.
3. Preheat oven to 325°F.
4. Place the flour, half of the sugar (4 7/8 oz.), and all the baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Beat for 30 seconds on speed 3 (of 10). Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
5. Beat yolks, cardamom, zest, water, and oil in a large bowl until smooth.
6. Add dry ingredients to yolk mixture; beat until smooth.
7. Transfer batter into the same large bowl in which you set aside the dry ingredients; clean and dry the mixing bowl. 
8. Whip egg whites and tartar until soft peaks form.
9. Gradually add remaining sugar; beat until whites resemble marshmallow fluff.
10. Fold whites into batter in 3 gentle-but-thorough additions.
11. Divide batter between prepared pans (1 lb + ½-oz. batter per pan). Bake until cakes are fully set, golden, and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
12. Cool in pans on racks 15 minutes. You will have noticed that the cakes domed in the oven, but as they cool, they’ll fall to be flat and will pull away from the sides of the pan.
13. Run a plastic knife around the rim of the cake, avoiding any up-and-down sawing action. Gently invert the cakes out of the pan and into your non-dominant hand, marvel at their spectacular lightness, peel off the parchment, and gently flip the cake right-side-up onto the rack. The cakes will look rough compared to butter cakes, but this will be concealed by the frosting. Cool completely. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Wrap and store at room temperature.)

For the frosting

Ingredients to frost and fill  a 2-layer, 8-inch cake:

21 oz. chilled heavy whipping cream (2½ cups), divided
Pinch of saffron threads
2⅝ oz. powdered sugar (⅔ cup)
1½ tsp rose water
6½ oz. sliced, fresh strawberries (from about 10 large berries)
2 Tbs natural unsalted pistachios
Candied rose petals or dried, organic rose buds

How to do it:

1. Combine ½-cup of the cream and all the saffron in small saucepan. Bring to simmer. Remove from heat; let steep 20 minutes.
2. Chill until cold. (If you start this process shortly after taking the cakes out of the oven, by the time the frosting’s ready, the cakes will be fully cool.)
3. Beat remaining 2 cups cream, powdered sugar, and rose water in large bowl until soft peaks form; strain in saffron cream. Beat until very stiff peaks form.
4. Place 1 cake layer, upside down, on platter. Top with strawberries, in an even layer. Spread 1½ cups frosting over. Top that with second cake layer, right side up. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake.
5. Garnish with pistachios and rose petals.
6. Chill at least 1 hour, although the frosting is better set after 6 hours. Keep cake tightly sealed in a cake tote, in the refrigerator. Over time, the cake will absorb moisture from the frosting and strawberries.

Unbelievably light 24 hours after having been frosted; denser, sweeter, and magnificent in a completely new way after 48 hours.

Notes:

Using real, edible flower petals gives this cake an unusual, striking, let informal beauty. The flowers are tied into the cake by the subtle hint of rose water in the frosting. Given the effect, charm, and significance of the rose petals and flavoring, this is the most perfect cake for Valentine’s Day.

This cake is often called “Persian Love Cake.” Other recipes for this cake produce less batter than mine. My version’s taller and more dramatic. A shorter cake might lean more toward charming.

Rose Petals & Rosewater

This recipe calls for edible rose petals. Finding them is a drag (or a quest, if you have a better attitude than mine). If you grow roses, and so know for sure that they haven’t been treated with something toxic, cool. Of course, if you want this cake for VD, let’s hope that you live south of the equator, and can thus produce organic roses in your back yard in February.

I lazily looked through some high-end grocery stores and a flower shop, and couldn’t find any edible rose petals. One of the stores I frequent does carry a mix of colorful, edible flowers, near the fresh herbs. They’re smaller, which makes designing the top of an 8-inch cake easier, and … I don’t know, maybe because they’re not roses, they’d make more of an “I’m Adorably Fond of You” cake, which is exactly what you need sometimes. If you’re willing to part with the flowers altogether, it would be worthwhile to consider topping the cake completely with a dusting of roughly chopped pistachios. Crushed petals from dried, organic rosebuds are a quite stunning garnish, too. Some of the photos in this most use that combination.

The recipe also calls for rose water. If you’re not familiar with it, just wait until you get a whiff. It’s so feminine, I thought my beard was going to fall out the first time I smelled it. Be careful using it. You want the frosting to have a floral note; you don’t want it to taste like a matronly perfume.

How to Make Candied Rose Petals

1 1/4 oz. egg white (from 1 large egg)
Petals from 1 edible rose (producing around 30 useable petals)
1 3/4 oz. sugar (¼ cup)

1. Spray a cooling rack with nonstick spray (or use a nonstick rack) and place it over a Silpat. Whisk egg whites in small bowl until foamy. Use a pastry brush to coat the rose petals all over with egg white foam. Take your time. Ensure that each petal is fully brushed with no dry spots, and don’t neglect the edges. Place petals on rack. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, gently turn them over, and sprinkle again.
2. Set the rack aside for a moment, and use the Silpat to pour the leftover sugar into a container. Place rack back over Silpat and reuse the sugar to repeat the process – again, very lightly and evenly. The petals may look like they don’t have enough sugar; the sugar has dissolved into the egg white and the egg white is still wet. As it dries, you’ll see that it will take on an obvious, sugary sheen. If you add so much sugar that the egg white can no longer absorb it, your petals will dry that way, with a white, crusty, snowy look – which is cool, as far as I’m concerned, if that’s what you prefer.
3. Allow the petals to dry on the rack least 6 hours or overnight.

Silpats and Saffron

You’ll find a Silpat handy for prepping the petals. “Silpat” is just my way of saying ‘reusable wax paper that can go in the oven, the freezer, the dishwasher, never has to be thrown out, and you never run out and have to buy more’. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

The frosting for this cake is flavored with saffron, the most expensive spice in the world. So, put that together with the quest to find the rose petals, and this cake becomes quite a production. But don’t let that worry you. This cake is spectacular and just screams “love;” you’re going to score off the charts if you make this for someone. Anyway, you steep the saffron in the frosting base, and then discard it, and although that seems to violate some unconscious rule about how you treat exorbitantly expensive things, I recommend that you do it. If you leave the threads in the frosting, it may not seem like a big deal … until about 12 hours later. Your frosting will develop yellow spots – unfortunately too few to seem purposeful.

Cardamom-Lemon Cake with Rosewater-Saffron Frosting

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. 

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