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 use LIA Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil. We also have below a video to walk you through the steps.
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. The original 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.
Almond Cardamom Pistachio Cake Video
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.
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. I might have went a little overboard!
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.
Like this recipe so far? Be the first to know when we release new ones!
Jewish Traditional Dessert Recipes
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 use LIA Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead of vegetable oil. We have a number of baking recipes here using EVOO instead of vegetable oil or cooking oil.
I hope you get a chance to make this Persian Almond Cardamom Pistachio Cake. Did you make this or another recipe? Tag @Spoonabilities on Instagram or add a photo or comment on Pinterest, so we can find you! And we love to hear from you in the comment section below.
Have a fun week!
Carlos
Persian Almond Cardamom Pistachio Cake
- Total Time: 90 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
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. Adapted from NYT-Cooking.
Ingredients
- ½ cup LIA Extra Virgin Olive Oil, plus additional for pan
- 7 large separated eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 Tablespoon almond extract
- 4 ½ cups plus 1 tablespoon almond flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 2 Tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
- 3 Tablespoons finely chopped pistachio nuts, for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 F degrees. Oil a 9-inch round or square pan and set aside.
- Whisk egg whites using a stand mixer until stiff but not dry, and set aside.
- Combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl, 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.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: Middle East
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- 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
Suggested Ingredients & Equipment
Buy Now → 
Buy Now → 
Buy Now → 
Hey there, I'm Carlos, a food and drink enthusiast, recipe blogger and 
Annne Caiden
If I reduced the sugar or used Erythritol instead would this reduce the carbohydrate content? (I’m married to a type 1 diabetic)
Geoffrey Swetz
Hi Anne. Thank you for your question. So sorry it took this long to answer you. First I have to say that we don't have any experience with cooking for diabetic diets. That being said, yes, you could use erythritol but my understanding is that it isn't that much of a difference in grams of carbs. It is of course not sugar, and calorie-free. My suggestion if you haven't tried it yet is monk fruit. We recently discovered this. Monk fruit extract (usually a powder) is sweeter than sugar, and has no calories, carbs, or fat. I recommend looking into that and how it can be applied for diabetics. Good luck!
Lila Wrubel
Delicious!!! I made this for a Passover Seder (and my daughter is gluten free) and it was quite a hit! So yummy and so easy, too! Before I decorated with the sugar and roughly ground pistachios it was fairly plain- looking, but it turned out quite lovely looking after. Thank you!
Geoffrey Swetz
Hi Lila. So sorry for missing your comment until now.
Thank you for making our recipe, and I'm so glad to hear it was both easy and yummy for you and your family. Yes, it does need a little dressing up. The plain cake is a little, plain. :)
KEVIN FOODIE
I am a huge fan of any sweet treat. This pistachio cake looks delicious. From the ingredient list, I am sure the cake is loaded with flavors. Interesting use of cardamon.
Geoffrey Swetz
Cardamom is one of Carlos's favorite spices, and, you really will love this cake. It's delicious.
Samantha
I am making this Monday for my Persian father in law for Ramadan! I wanted to try this with regular flour as well for myself , is there a recipe you could give me to use unbleached flour too! Almond flour gets spendy! Thanks and can’t wait to try :)
Carlos Leo
Hi Samantha, I'm so excited to see the photos and your feedback after you make this cake. Regarding your question, I haven't make this cake with AP flour yet. But, you can definitely swap for ratio 1:2 (2-1/4 AP flour instead of 4-1/2 Almond flour). The only problem that I see here is that this original recipe has a lot eggs because serve as a binding agent. I will probably reduce the eggs by 4 and add a 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.
I'm guessing the suggestion and I need to test the recipe with the alternative suggestion. I don't want you to waste ingredients. I will recommend another pistachio cake. Look in our website the recipe " Pistachio Tiramisu Cake with Whipped Mascarpone Cream & Cardamom Syrup."
Let me know if you have any other question. Happy Baking!
Channade
Tried this recipe yesterday and it was amazing. So easy and the flavours were impeccable. Definitely making again - my whole family loved it!
Geoffrey Swetz
Thanks for letting us know Channade. That's is great to hear that your whole family loved it.
Kumar
Hii, you have written a very good article on cardamon pistachio cake. thanks for sharing this article.
Geoffrey @ Spoonabilities
We're glad you like it. Enjoy!
Eileen Kelly
I'm so with you on cardamom, it adds amazing flavor to everything. What a fantastic cake and it is moist and delicious.
Geoffrey @ Spoonabilities
Yes, cardamom is Carlos's new spice. He's putting it on as many things as he can :)
Laura
This cake looks and sounds amazing. I'm definitely Pinning this for a special occasion.
Geoffrey @ Spoonabilities
We LOVE when people pin our recipes Laura. Thank you so much.
Terri
What a fantastic combination of flavors- pistachio is my fave!
Geoffrey @ Spoonabilities
Pistachio is an awesome flavor indeed. We are working on a Pistachio tiramisu-type cake with pistachio-mascarpone cream filling. If you're not on our mailing list, join us to find out when we publish that one ;)
colleen kennedy
Something about a dense cake has always appealed to me and the flavor of cardamom?? Yes!
Geoffrey @ Spoonabilities
So glad to hear that. It's a really great little cake.
Jersey Girl Cooks
I would love this for breakfast with a good cup of coffee!
Geoffrey @ Spoonabilities
You are speaking our language! Perfect for breakfast.
Ellen Jardine
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~
Geoffrey @ Spoonabilities
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.
Jarrod
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.
Carlos Leo
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.
Jarrod
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!
Carlos Leo
Hi Jarrod, I'm so happy to see you here again:). I'm looking forward to seeing your recipe.
Jarrod Brown
Carlos, sorry it took me so long, but I Tweeted a picture of the dessert to @Spoonabilities!
Carlos Leo
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?
Julie
This sounds delicious! I love cardamom. Must make this soon.
Geoffrey Swetz
Hi Julie. Thank you for your comment. Carlos loves using cardamom in a bunch of his recipes lately. Do try out the recipe.
Manju | Cooking Curries
I love almond cakes and pistachio and pistachio and cardamom is definitely a match made in heaven of flavors!!
Geoffrey Swetz
Hi Manju, then you have the best of both worlds with this cake. Give is a try
Sandi G
Such a pretty cake. I love pistachio.
Geoffrey Swetz
Thank you Sandi! We love pistachios too. What's not to love?
Neli @ Delicious Meets Healthy
The cake looks absolutely fantastic and so delicious! Can't wait to try it. I have heard of but never used olive oil before in dessert recipes. Will have to give it a try soon.
Carlos Leo
Hello Neli, I'm so glad that you're going to give olive oil a try in desserts. We have a few recipes here that you can try.
Laura | Wandercooks
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! :D
Carlos Leo
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!
Laura | Wandercooks
Aww thanks Carlos, and likewise! Love checking in to see what you're cooking up next. Keep up the delicious work hahah. :D
Kim
WOW, this looks scrumptious! Wish I could bake a cake like that :o 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!
Carlos Leo
Hi Kim, This cake is really easy to make. Give it a try!
Thank you for your comment.
mei
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.
Carlos Leo
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.