Ispahan Cake

Add this impressive Ispahan cake to your recipe collection. Flavored with rose and fresh raspberries, this moist and delicately scented loaf cake may seem sophisticated, but it is incredibly easy to make.

Have you ever heard of French family desserts called Ispahan?

It is a family of 42 sweet treats created by the French pastry chef Pierre Hermé: tart, choux, mille-feuille, croissant, Ispahan madeleines, Ispahan macarons, sablé, tea, jam, nougat, caramel, etc.

They are all famous for their unique Ispahan flavor, a flavor combination of rose sweetness, the power of raspberry, and the floral note of fresh lychee.

Pierre Hermé came up with this combination when he created an early version of the Ispahan for Ladurée.

He experimented with it in different forms, from the French toast (pain perdu in French) to ice creams to a Buche de Noel.

In the end, Ispahan desserts have become Pierre Hermé's obsession since 1987.

In 2013 he published a whole book entirely dedicated to Ispahan desserts - "Pierre Herme Ispahan."

Once a year, in Pierre Hermé’s boutiques, there is a season of Fetish Ispahan, which is a reason to over-eat rose, lychee, and raspberry’s creations.

So, if you plan a trip to Paris, experience all variations of Ispahan desserts in the City of Light.

What is Ispahan cake?

Ispahan cake is a raspberry loaf cake that belongs to a family of desserts called Ispahan. It is named after a famous Damask rose, Ispahan.

The cake is dense and moist due to almond flour and fresh raspberries baked inside the cake.

It has its inner architecture where berries are arranged in an attractive pattern.

The cake is flavorful due to rosewater. Yes, the rose fragrant is exotic, but at the same time, it is light and not overpowering. The right balance of ingredients forms a perfect match, a real treat!

Ispahan loaf cake seems like a casual cake from the first impression, but its blend of rose with raspberry upgrades the cake to a romantic Ispahan dessert.

Why you should try this recipe

1. This cake recipe is straightforward and easy to make.
2. The cake is soft, buttery, and moist.
3. Due to fresh raspberries, it makes a great summer fruit dessert.
4. It has a romantic touch due to the rosewater flavor.
5. This loaf cake can be served on any occasion: at a birthday party, baby shower, to finish a dinner party, bring it on a picnic, or enjoy it with a cup of morning coffee or afternoon tea.
6. The cake batter holds fresh raspberries, preventing them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

Ingredients

Here is a quick overview of what ingredients you will need. Follow the full recipe below for exact amounts and instructions. I recommend making the recipe as written for the best results.

Butter: use unsalted softened butter. Take it out of the fridge one to two hours before you start.

Icing sugar: make it yourself with a coffee grinder or use store-bought powdered sugar.

Almond flour: use blanched finely ground almond flour to make the cake.

Please do not try to substitute it for a coarse almond meal. Instead, follow one important tip: spoon it from a container gently into a measuring cup while measuring almond flour. 

Do NOT pack or press it down! Read this article about How to Measure Ingredients.

Eggs: use large eggs; the same is applicable for egg whites and egg yolks.

Use an egg separator to facilitate separating egg whites from yolks while whole eggs are cold.

Sugar: use granulated sugar or caster sugar.

Milk: the recipe calls for whole milk.

Rose water: use top-quality rosewater to flavor the dessert. Read on what rosewater is.

White chocolate: use Callebaut white chocolate or Lindt classic white chocolate (you will need to buy two chocolate bars).

Grapeseed oil: it is a flavorless oil added to make the glaze. I would not recommend replacing it with any other kind of oil.

Freeze-dried raspberries: purchase freeze-dried raspberries or make dried raspberries yourself.

To do so, preheat the oven to 195 degrees F/90 degrees C. Place 10.5 oz. (300 g) fresh tart raspberries on the parchment paper and bring them to the oven.

Let berries dry for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Then cool down and chop dried raspberries into middle-sized pieces.

Flour: use all-purpose flour to make the recipe, and I do not suggest substituting it for another kind of flour or meal.

How to make cake Ispahan

Preheat oven to 355 degrees F/180 degrees C.

Sift almond flour and icing (powdered) sugar into a medium bowl and set aside. Sift all-purpose flour into a separate bowl.

To make the cake batter, place the softened butter and almond mixture in a large mixing bowl and beat for 3 minutes, using an electric mixer.

Add a whole egg with egg yolks to the butter mixture (photo 1) and whisk for 2 minutes.

Then add milk mixed with rosewater and beat 1 minute again (photo 2).

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites (not too firm), gradually adding granulated sugar.

Delicately add egg whites to the cake batter (photo 3), incorporating flour simultaneously.

Mix with a rubber spatula, starting from the center, from bottom to top (photo 4). Don’t overfold! It is better to under fold than overfold.

Butter a nonstick loaf pan and dust with flour. Transfer the cake batter to a piping bag.

Garnish the cake pan with ⅓ of the almond-rose batter and smooth out.

Arrange a layer of raspberries, staying away from the edges (photo 5). Then cover raspberries with another ⅓ of batter.

Add berries again at a distance from the edges of the loaf tin. Pour the rest of the batter over fresh raspberries.

Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F/150 degrees C and bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until a knife can be inserted and removed cleanly without streaks of the batter (photo 6).

Unmold the cake immediately after baking. Allow it to cool to room temperature.

To make the white chocolate and dried raspberry glaze, melt white chocolate in a microwave in 3 (15-second) intervals, stirring between each melt.

Add grapeseed oil, chopped freeze-dried raspberries, and gently mix them (photo 7).

Let the glaze cool down to 30 degrees C/86 degrees F maximum; otherwise, it will be too runny to stick to the surface of the cake.

To decorate the cake, transfer the dessert on a wire rack placed on top of a baking tray.

Next, pour the glaze over the cake (photo 8). Then, carefully transfer the dessert to a cake plate.

Recipe variations

There is an authentic version of how to decorate the cake, but you can also put your own touch in the cake topping, trying to stay in the spirit of Ispanan.

Follow the original recipe and decorate the cake with crystallized rose petals and crushed Pink Praline - red-colored candied almonds - giving an additional crunchiness to the dessert.

Crystallized rose petals significantly contribute to the magic of this raspberry loaf cake.

To crystallize untreated red rose petals, start two days in advance: delicately brush them with egg white, dust them with icing (powdered) sugar, and dry petals on parchment paper (in the air) for two days.

Another way to finish the cake is to pour the white chocolate and dried raspberry glaze over the cake (the recipe is below).

The simplest way to decorate the dessert is to sprinkle the top of the cake with rose icing sugar and decorate with fresh raspberries.

To make rose icing sugar, blend equal parts of edible rose buds or dried rose petals and caster sugar in a blender or food processor.

Storage

You can store the unglazed cake in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 10 days. Being glazed, keep it up to 3 days.

To freeze the unglazed cake, let it cool, cover it with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer. The cake can be frozen for up to 2 months.

To thaw, place it in the fridge overnight or on the kitchen counter for 3 to 4 hours.

On the day of serving, make the glaze and decorate the cake.

Expert tips

1. Make sure that all ingredients are at room temperature. Take the butter out of the fridge two hours before you start baking.
2. Avoid egg yolk or/and eggshells in the egg whites while breaking eggs. Slightly beat egg whites (not too firm).
3. Add a few drops of red food color to the batter to get slightly rose color of the cake if desired. This touch of food coloring is optional though.
4. Use only fresh raspberries since the frozen ones are too watery to make the cake.
5. Divide the cake batter into three parts to make equal layers of the batter and raspberries.
6. Use of a pastry bag is optional: you can spoon the batter in a cake tin.

Frequently asked questions

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The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.

The recipe was adapted from niksya.ru. It was originally published on February 19, 2018. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.