A simple cake with date frosting, inspired by the South

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