Name: A simple cake with date frosting, inspired by the South
Yield: Makes a 20 cm (8 inch) cake
Cuisine: Tajik
Ingredients: ⅔ cup (100 g) wholemeal (whole-wheat) flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon; 100 ml (3½ fl oz) sunflower oil, seed oil or melted butter; 1 cup (250 ml) hot water (from a kettle); 4 eggs; 120 g (4 ¼ oz) sugar; 1 cup (250 g) full-fat yoghurt; 1 teaspoon baking powder; zest of ½ orange; 30 g (1 oz) butter; ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda); a pinch of salt; 1 cup (150 g) plain (all-purpose) flour; 300 g (10½ oz) dates, pitted; ¼–⅓ cup (30–40 g) walnuts, coarsely chopped; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation info

Makes a
20
inch) cake

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Pomegranates & Artichokes

By Saghar Setareh

Published 2023

About

One of the best chocolate cakes in the world, in my opinion, comes from a famous pastry shop in Tehran, called Bibi. Most of the shop’s popularity is due to their moist, luscious and yet light chocolate cake, which is somehow, always perfectly, only just sweet, but never too much. It’s nothing like the sticky and thick sacher-torte, for example — which I happen to not like.

Cakes and tarts from confectionery shops have been part of Iranian afternoon teas, gatherings and me