Persian love cake with rosewater

Alter quantities (metric only) 12 slices

Heat your oven to 170°C/150°C fan/Gas mark 3
Line the base of your 20cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Grind your almonds in into a flour using a coffee grinder or food processor. The almonds will compact quite quickly so pulse your grinder or food processor and keep checking the consistency. It will be flour like when ready.
Beat together your butter and sugar until soft and pale yellow in colour.
Sift together your flour, baking powder and salt.
Add ⅓ of your eggs along with 2 desert spoonfuls of flour mixture and beat gently until incorporated.
Repeat the above step until all of your eggs have been used.
Using a pestle and mortar give your cardamom pods a gentle bash to release the seeds. Discard the husks.
Add all of the rest of your ingredients and beat on a medium setting for about 25 seconds until fully combined.
Transfer to your lined tin.
Bake in the centre of your oven for about 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of your cake comes out clean.
Whilst baking make your syrup, so it is ready to be added to your cake as soon as it comes out of your oven.

Add all of the drizzle ingredients into a small saucepan and heat gently until all of the sugar has dissolved, stirring continually.
Simmer gently for 2 minutes.
As soon as your cake comes out of the oven, prick it all over with a skewer and pour over the syrup.
Spread the syrup evenly across the cake using a pastry brush.
Leave your cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack until completely cold.

Sift your icing sugar into a bowl.
Mix in all of the rest of the ingredients until totally combined.
Pour over your cake holding the icing above the centre of the cake so that it spreads out evenly and drips gently down the sides of the cake.