Cake Yazdi is to Iranians what vanilla or chocolate cupcakes are to Americans! I have yet to serve this cupcake without sparking a twinkle in someone’s eye, followed by an ear-to-ear smile. For anyone of Iranian origin, this familiar little treat evokes sweet and tender emotions, often prompting nostalgic stories of a distant childhood spent enjoying Cake Yazdi in Iran.

Cake Yazdi originates from Yazd, a five-thousand-year-old city located in the heart of Iran and one of the greatest adobe cities in the world. This desert provincial capital is renowned for its delectable sweets, silk textiles, Zoroastrian fire temples, mosques, and wind towers. These ingenious structures provide ventilation in buildings by capturing breezes from above while venting warmer air from below. The tallest wind catcher in Yazd is part of the Dowlatabad Garden, which is inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

I have made this cupcake dozens of times and have even taught it in some of my cooking classes here in Seattle. Recently, I revisited some of my old—and by old, I mean Roza Montazemi-old—cookbooks to see if there are easier or better ways to make them. For those unfamiliar with Roza Montazemi, she was a celebrated chef and author whose cookbooks date back to the early 1970s. The food photos in her books absolutely scream the style of that decade!

After six different attempts at this recipe, each with varying degrees of success, I decided this version was the best. I hope these cupcakes evoke strong emotions as you make them, and I would love to hear the stories they inspire you to share.

Innocence!