The recipe that I’m sharing today is the Baklava Cake (or Cake e Baghlava in Farsi). All the wonderful fragrant spices of Baklava (Baghlava) come together in this delightfully light cake that is super moist with a walnut filling and a delicate blend of cardamom, cinnamon and rose essence. Baklava Cake is traditionally made on Persian holidays as well as casual dinner parties.
Mix the spices and sugar with coarsely chopped walnuts in a small bowl. Whisk together the butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla, baking soda, and yogurt in a large bowl until smooth. Gradually add enough flour to the wet ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until the dough is very smooth and does not stick to your fingers.
On a lightly floured surface divide the dough in half
Using a rolling pin roll out one dough piece into a 9 x 13 inch rectangle
This is a very smooth and workable dough, and you will be able to carefully lift and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet. Stretch the dough to cover the bottom of the pan.
Beat the egg whites with a whisk until foamy
Brush some of it on the dough. Sprinkle the walnut filling mixture on the dough. Drizzle the rest of the egg whites over the filling. Roll out the other dough piece to another 9 x 13 inch rectangle and stretch to cover all of the walnut filling. Press the dough lightly to the filling with the palm of your hand.
Mark the dough into 20 equal square, then cut with a knife through all the layers
Brush the top with egg wash and bake. Start making the syrup after 15 minutes.
Bake the Baklava Cake until rich golden brown. Place the pan in a larger baking pan to catch any syrup dripping. Run your knife through the thickness of the pastry between the squares one more time.
Pour all of the lukewarm syrup over the entire hot Baklava (Baghlava) Cake including the borders. Sprinkle chopped pistachio on the squares.
Allow the Baklava Cake to cool in the pan and enjoy! I usually can’t wait for it to cool!!
yield: Twenty 2 x 2 inch pastries
- FOR THE DOUGH
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp vanilla powder or 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 4 ½ - 5 cups all-purpose flour
- FOR THE WALNUT FILLING
- 2 tsp cardamom powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon powder
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ cups coarsely chopped walnuts, split-pea sized
- 2 egg whites, beaten until foamy (save the yolks)
- 2 egg yolks mixed with 1 tsp cold water for the egg wash
- FOR THE SYRUP
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 ½ TBSP honey
- 1 TBSP plus 1 tsp rose water
- GARNISH
- Chopped pistachios
- Preheat oven to 350 F, center rack
- Grease a 9 x13 x1 inch nonstick baking pan with butter flavored Crisco and lightly dust with flour. Tap the pan over the sink to shake off the excess flour.
- To make the walnut fulling, in a small bowl mix 2 tsp cardamom, 2 tsp cinnamon, ¾ cup powdered sugar and 1 ½ cups coarsely chopped walnuts. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk all the dough ingredients except the flour, until smooth.
- Add the flour gradually and mix well with a wooden spoon after each addition. Add enough flour until the dough stops sticking to the fingers; you may have some leftover flour. On a lightly floured surface pat the dough into a fat rectangle, then divide it into two equal pieces.
- Use a rolling pin to roll out one of the dough pieces into a 9 x 13 inch rectangle.
- Gently lift the rolled dough and lay it on the prepared baking pan, use your finger tips to gently stretch the dough to fit the bottom of the pan perfectly.
- Brush some of the foamy egg white on the dough.
- Sprinkle all of the walnut filling mixture over the dough in the pan.
- Drizzle the rest of the beaten egg white on the mixture.
- On the floured surface roll out the other piece of dough into another 9 x 13 inch rectangle for the top. Carefully cover the nut and spice mixture with the rolled out dough and stretch it with your fingertips to completely cover the top of the pastry. Press the dough onto the filling.
- Use a sharp plastic knife to mark the dough into 20 equal rectangles. Cut through the thickness of the pastry on the marks you have made. Brush the egg wash over the entire surface of the pastry.
- Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the top of the pastry is a rich golden brown.
- After 15 minutes into baking start making the syrup: In a 2-Qt saucepan add 1 ½ cups water, 1 ½ cups sugar, and 1 ½ TBSP honey. Bring it to a boil over medium heat. Let it boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and add 1 TBSP plus 1 tsp rose water. Set aside until ready to use.
- By the time the pastry is ready, the syrup should reach a lukewarm temperature.
- Remove the pastry from the oven. Place the pan in a larger baking pan to catch any possible syrup dripping.
- Use your plastic knife once again to cut through the baked pastry between the squares. Drizzle all of the lukewarm syrup evenly all over the hot pastry, don’t forget the borders. It might look like all the syrup will not fit in the pan, but it does and all of it will get soaked up to make this cake amazingly moist and delicious. Sprinkle the pastry with chopped pistachio. Allow to cool completely in the pan over a cooling rack before transferring the pastries to a serving platter in a single layer.
- This pastry is best when served at room temperature
Rose water and cardamom may be purchased at Middle Eastern or Mediterranean markets.
Thank you for this recipe. I wanted to make something more personalised for my father’s birthday rather than a typical birthday cake. He really loves baklava but I had no experience making it. A baklava cake seemed a perfect idea for his birthday. I found this recipe easy to make and it came out perfectly. My father really liked it, I’m sure he liked it better than he would have liked a vanilla or chocolate cake. I would definitely make it again!
Dear Jessica, I wish your father a happy birthday and an amazing year ahead. Thank you for sharing this beautiful comment. I’m so happy your father liked the cake that his wonderful daughter baked for him! I have a very nice traditional Baklava recipe that I’m sure you will recreate in a breeze; it is actually less complicated than what you just baked 🙂 Here is the link: https://persianmama.com/baklava-baghlava/ I would love to hear about it when you make it.
Hello Homa khanoom. I hope all is well. I love baklavah cake, but I’m allergic to dairy. Could you please give me the recipe with no dairy in it? I can substitute the butter with margarine, but what about the yogurt? Thank you in advance.
Hello dear Hilda, I have heard of this dairy-free yogurt brand made with soy: https://silk.com/products, and I have seen it in the supermarkets in U.S. You could try their plain yogurt . I have not tried it myself on this recipe or any other recipe, but it sounds like something that you could experiment with.
Another product that is sometimes used in baking to substitute yogurt/oil, is applesauce, though it might give you a little different flavor and texture. Please let me know if any of these work for you. Good luck 🙂
Hello Persian Mama! I just made this cake exactly per your instructions and it came out absolutely delicious, not too sweet and really moist. I’m not much of a baker so I was a little nervous but this was an easy recipe to follow. Kheili mamnoonam for sharing it with us!
Dear Aaron, I’m delighted to hear that! Nooshe jan! Khahesh mikonam, and thanks for your comment.
Thank you for the great recipe. Is there any way I can substitute the walnut filling with almond?
My pleasure Marjan! I have never tried it with almonds but it should be fine. What I would suggest is to soak the blanched almonds in warm water for 10 minutes to make them soft and then process or chop them into small pieces before using.
Happy Nourowze! Love this recipe, Thank you
Firoze
Happy Nowruz to you and your family Firozee jan; enjoy it!
Dear Homa,
Thank you very much for this recipe. I made this lovely cake for my Iranian office neighbor, Rahim, for his birthday. He enjoyed it very much! Your blog, pictures, recipes, and sweet spirit are all so lovely. Thank you for sharing with all of us!
Dear Amanda, it is wonderful to read your kind message here! I’m delighted that your friend enjoyed his birthday cake. Thank you for writing to me and please keep in touch.
thank you Homa jan, this looks like a great recipe, thanks for sharing! I do have another recipe for baklava cake that I usually use. this one looks more interesting. I will have to make it soon. Would you mind if I share it in one of my cooking classes?
Dear Mojegan, This is a great recipe and I think your students will enjoy it very much. I always ask for the mention of my website and a link back to my recipes when sharing on other sites and I would appreciate if you let your students know about my website and page Persian Mama. Thanks you for asking and please keep in touch.
Hello Persian Mama, My friend made your cake and it was absolutely awesome. She skipped the walnut and instead; she used a mix of 2/3 Almond and 1/3 pistachio. It was so yummy. Thank you for your recipe
Hello Sima jan; thanks so much for writing to me! I’m glad to hear that you liked my recipe, and the combination that your friend used sounds very delicious. Have a wonderful evening and please keep in touch!
Hello Persian Mama, My friend made your cake and it was absolutely awesome. She skipped the walnut and instead; she used a mix of 2/3 Almond and 1/3 pistachio. It was so yummy. Thank you for your recipe.
Dear Homa,
Thanks for your fantastic recipe. I made it and it was really good. Keep on your good working. I am also from Tabriz and living in Sweden and has recommend your nice page to my Swedish colleagues. They adore your great page and recipes.
Wish all the best and good luck lovely lady 🙂
Kind regards,
Maryam
It’s my pleasure dear Maryam! I’m thrilled that you’ve enjoyed this recipe. Many thanks hamshahri 😉 for introducing my page to your colleagues. Love having your support my dear; hope you’ll find more of your favorite recipes here. Please keep in touch!
Just out of the oven. My only question was the eggs in mixing the dough. I did use 2 egg yolks and saved the whites for brushing. Is this correct? Otherwise it was easy and delicious. My dough needs a little practice ??thanks for sharing.
Mary
Hi Mary; you will use 4 eggs in total for this recipe; the first 2 whole eggs are mixed in with the dough and the other 2 eggs are separated, with whites for the filling stage and the yolks will be mixed with water for brushing over the dough. If I’m correct, I think you have used only two yolks in the dough? I believe next time you will have an easier time with the dough; it should be very smooth and very easy to handle. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Hi Homa,
I had some trouble with this recipe (being a total amateur baker). Somehow the center of my cake rose more than yours did in the picture and the syrup just ran off and accumulated by the edges of the pan. So the edges of the cake are nice but the pieces from the center are a bit dry and tough. I’m thinking I should leave this to the professionals, ha! My husband really liked it though.
Dear Allison; sorry to hear that, baking is so frustrating sometimes 🙁 I would suggest a few possible points: Sometimes the ovens have uneven heating; this could be there from the factory or it develops after years of using an oven (like mine has just recently). To investigate this you will need to place an oven-safe thermometer inside the oven at different spots when you’re preheating and see if the temperature is the same as what your digital oven temperature is showing. sometimes this problem could be remedied by placing another baking sheet on the rack below where you’re baking your cake/pastry.
The other thing is that the dough should be rolled out evenly and if it is thicker in the middle, it’s going to rise more. Just a reminder, but I’m sure you’ve already done this one, the pastry has to be scored and cut into squares before baking.
I hope you will figure out the issue and your next baklava cake will be perfect; but remember not to EVER give up 😉
I did cut into squares, but it is possible that the middle of the dough was thicker. Actually that’s the most likely explanation. So my fault, not yours! Baking is a whole different animal – when I have more time someday I’ll have to work on it. Thanks for the tips!
Anytime Allison; I’m sure it will be amazing next time; let me know how it turns out!
dear Alison
it is good practice in baking to sift baking soda and baking powder with flour before,
to make sure it is mixed well before you add them I any form of liquid. this will help
the dough to have even surface.
Dear Hassan; thank you very much for your helpful comment. Have a great week!
Dear Homa the cake looks very delicious,can I make half the recipe.
Thank you Judith; I don’t see why not! I have always made the whole recipe since it freezes so well; however just divide the recipe in half and use a pan half the size of what’s mentioned in the recipe. Let me know how it works out for you!
homa khanoom, salaam
I am very excited to make this recipe but don’t have butter (corona virus shortage) is it okay to substitute butter for canola oil?
Salam Sulmaz jan, I have only used butter in this recipe, but oil should also work fine. I know what you mean about the butter shortage 🙁
Happy baking! Please keep in touch and let me know how this works out for you!
Hi, I made this cake today and I really love the flavour but I have couple of problems. I use fan assistant oven so I went to same degree that I usually back cakes which is 160c instead of 180c in your recipe. I didn’t know how thick the layers should be so I assumed 1cm might be close enough. After 35 min the top layer was baked but under walnut mix all the way down was doughy and I kept cooking until I guess I killed it, it became little bit dry. Tasted amazing though. Could you please give me some advice so I don’t make the same mistake again.
Dear Sarah, If you have rolled out the dough as I have indicated in the recipe and have baked it in the same size pan, the fact that the cake was not baked in the middle, tells me that 160c in your fan assisted oven was too low for baking this cake. Personally, I only use my convection oven when I need to use all the racks, and I don’t decrease the temperature. But each oven is different, so you really will have to experiment. You could increase the temp to 170c and bake the cake on a lower rack without altering the bake time. I hope this works for you and I would like to hear back from you with the results. Have a great weekend 🙂
Dear Homa,
Thanks a lot,I will use the exact same size tray and will play with temperature until I get it right. Have a good one too. Cheers
Anytime dear Sarah! Happy baking 🙂
Hello Homa khanoom,
I have made this recipe a few times and really love it! Thank you for sharing it. I have one tweak I’d like to ask you about. I am a lover of the flavor of saffron and was wondering if you think this recipe would work well with a tiny bit of it added.
If so, would you recommend adding some of to the syrup (I’m thinking boiling 1/4 cup of water and letting the saffron soak), or would it be better to add it to the batter?
THANK YOU!!
Nilou
Hi Nilou, I’m glad you like this recipe, it is one of my favorites!! I would add the saffron to the syrup. Please keep in touch and Happy Baking 🙂
Hi Homa, your recipe looks so delicious! I’m planning to make it this weekend. Could you tell me please how many mls/grams are in the cups you use? I have two different cup measurements and I’m not sure which to use. Thanks! Jenny
Hi Jenny, this is an amazing recipe, glad you’re baking it 🙂
I use the standard cups. But since a cup of sugar weights differently from a cup of flour, to find the grams for the ingredients this is how I search for it: “How many grams in a cup of flour, sugar, powdered sugar, …..
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+grams+in+a+cup+of+flour&oq=How+many+grams+in+a+cup+of+flour&aqs=chrome.0.0l8.6904j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Thank you so much for this recipe (and for several others from your blog)! I have been doing a series of ‘lockdown lunches’ for my family, in an attempt to keep my little daughter entertained (and well fed), and today I made a Persian lunch. I followed the recipes for khoresh-e-fesenjan, salad Shirazi, kashk-e-bademjan, and cake-e-baklava from your blog, and each one of them was absolutely delicious. Other than the cake (which is, thankfully, a large amount for a family of three, even though I made half this quantity), everything got eaten to the last crumb. And we’re looking forward to eating the rest of the cake in carefully rationed pieces over the next week.
Thank you, again! I’m so glad I discovered your blog.
Hi Madhulika, I’m delighted to have you follow my blog and enjoy my family recipes. Your little one is lucky to have a mom who keeps her entertained! Children are amazing, I’m sure she is getting her first culinary training while enjoying good, healthy food. Yes, the size of this cake is great for large parties, but it also freezes very well. I would love to read your feedback on the blog post of the recipes that you try. Please keep in touch and take care.. 🙂
I will certainly be trying more of your recipes, Homa! We finished the last of the cake last night (I had made half the size you’ve given a recipe for), and were very sad that it was all over. My daughter’s already asking me to make it again. 🙂
🙂
Hi, Homa! I just made this lovely cake today and am very impressed—it’s as if a baklava collided with a cinnamon coffee cake. Mine came out precisely as yours did in the pictures above, which is a GREAT outcome when one is making a recipe for the first time! The cake part is so wonderfully tender, and the end result was surprisingly not so sweet. Next time, on to baklava! Cheers, Rachel in DC
Hi dear Rachel, it is always great to hear from someone who loves my recipes as much as I do 😉 It is wonderful that your first try was so perfect; it is indeed very impressive!! Enjoy baking the Baklava, I have a feeling you’ll love it. Take care and keep in touch. Thanks so much for writing to me 🙂
Hi, thank you for another fabulous recipe, is it possible to substitute regular flour wit almond flour in this? If so, what modifications do you recommend making?
It is my pleasure dear Afra. I have never made this cake with almond flour. You might be able to substitute one cup of almond flour and see how it works out for you.
Dear Homa , thank you very much for your fantastic blog and recipes. I was just wondering if you any suggestion on how to make this gluten free ?
I love love love Baklava but can’t have it !
Really appreciate your help,
Shiva
Dear Shiva, I have never made this cake with gluten free flour, but you could give it a try and see how it works out for you. I would love to read your feedback. Please take care and keep in touch!
This is such a delicious cake- thank you! Easy enough that my 3 year old son was able to help me – we made it for the first time for Nowruz last week and loved it so much we are making another today. Merci and Nowruz Moborak!
Hi Amanda, thanks for your comment. I love this cake and I’m so happy to hear that you had a successful and fun baking time with your little boy. Wish you and your lovely family a wonderful New Year, Eyd-e shoma ham mobarak
Hello there,
Is it possible to substitute store bought puff pastry sheets for the dough?
Hi Anahita, I don’t think it would work very well. The dough in my recipe bakes around the nut filling, and puff pastry does not have the same property and my guess is that the nuts will fall out. Take care 🙂