Iraqi Traditional Wedding Cake
Lord Elia in her kitchen with ingredients to bake a cake.
Photos by Alex Lumelsky
A recipe for romance, just in time for Valentine’s Day
By z.z. dawod
If you have ever attended a wedding in Baghdad, chances are you were served a particular cake which has been popular at Chaldean weddings since at least the 1950s. If you’re old enough to remember those days, you may even recall Baghdad Tower Bakery, a specialty shop that became well-known for making this cake.
These days, alcohol is included in many recipes — both with main dishes and desserts — but this was not the case back then: This cake recipe was considered “fancy” by many because it contained liquor. Adding red wine, brandy or whiskey to a cake recipe was reserved only for the most special of occasions. With its rich taste and dense texture, it’s possible that this cake became a popular choice because dinner was generally not a part of wedding celebrations in those times.
Hana and Sulaiman Yaqo at their wedding in 1978. Every layer of the wedding cake was real.
Photo courtesy Hana Yaqo
For couples who lived in a big city such as Baghdad, this would have been the cake of choice for a major event. This may partially have been the case thanks to the availability of modern ovens in densely populated areas. Village life was different: Most homes in places like Alqosh or Dohuk, were equipped with a tanoor, the traditional clay oven used for baking cookies and breads.
This “wedding cake” recipe is unique because raisins and walnuts are marinated in alcohol prior to baking. This is done a day or two before any baking takes place and it is the liquor-infused raisins and walnuts that give this cake its unique flavor.
The recipe presented here is a “family-friendly” version developed by Lord Elia, a West Bloomfield-based entrepreneur and Instagram personality. The liquor is substituted with date syrup and orange juice, a variation on the original recipe. If you are planning an adult-only event, feel free to add your choice of liquor for an even more intense aroma. On the day I visited Lord’s home kitchen, she prepared the alcohol-free version and it was absolutely divine.
Growing Up in Baghdad
Lord Elia was born and raised in Baghdad. She lived in the Iraqi capital until 1996 when she immigrated to America with her family at the age of 16.
Lord grew up in a traditional home, where her mother, Bernadette, kept the home and her father, Ameer, earned a living. Lord has many fond memories of her mother’s excellent cooking. “Mom could make any dish you can imagine,” she said proudly. However, Lord also recalls that, “Mother was a perfectionist and had one rule: My brother and I were to stay out of the kitchen while she cooked. As a result, she cooked and prepared all the meals by herself.” The kitchen was Bernadette’s domain.
While Bernadette kept busy preparing traditional dishes, desserts, yogurt and cheeses for her family, she tasked her children with just one responsibility: School work. Lord recalls her mother asking that she and her brother, Bashar, do well in school and use their time for studying, so they can earn top grades.
Because Bernadette did not involve her children in the cooking process, Lord never had the opportunity to work side by side with her mother in the kitchen or to cook together. This was the norm for Lord during her formative years and she did not object to the rules set forth by her mother. Instead, Lord focused on her schoolwork and is now a pharmacist, married with two children, with a home of her own to keep.
Necessity Breeds Entrepreneurship
While Lord worked long 14-hour shifts as a pharmacist, her mother continued to command the kitchen, assisting with meal preparation for her daughter’s family. As the years passed by, Bernadette became a critical part of the family, preparing a wide range of traditional dishes, just as she had done in previous decades.
When Bernadette passed away unexpectedly, she left a great void and Lord’s father, Ameer, stepped in help out as much as he could. However, it was clear that, if Lord wanted her children to gr0w up eating traditional Chaldean cuisine as she did, she would need to learn how to prepare these dishes herself.
That’s when Lord remembered that her mother, ever the perfectionist, kept meticulously organized notes for an array of recipes all those years ago. Browsing through her mother’s collection, Lord found a gold mine of sources to start from, including a nice collection of special recipes that were given to her mom by friends and family members.
As Lord fine-tuned her new craft, she turned to Instagram to share what she made and to connect with other like-minded people also learning to prepare traditional Chaldean meals. This turned out to be a brilliant move as she began to receive feedback on her questions, lots of good ideas, and inspiration to get creative with her baking and decorating efforts.
As Lord’s Instagram channel grew in popularity, people began to ask for recipes, instructions and advice. Eventually, the many requests sparked an idea to start a business, preparing premium sweets for special occasions.
A Date with Destiny
Determined to put her modern twist on a dessert with deep traditional ties, Lord went in search of an offering with some cultural relevance. After much reflection, research and experimentation, she eventually settled on one of the most traditional ingredients from the Middle East the much beloved date.
Dates are one of the oldest known fruit crops and they have been cultivated in North Africa and the Middle East for at least 5,000 years, according to Domestication of Plants in the Old World (Oxford University Press).
Since dates are also an integral part of Chaldean culture and cuisine, Lord’s idea was an easy sell and business is now booming.
If You Bake It, You Can Make It
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we encourage couples to explore Lord’s traditional cake recipe. Go ahead, make a special night of it and don’t be shy about adding a bit of brandy to the mix. Baking together as a way to celebrate and recall Chaldean traditions from times past is a wonderful way to bring old and new traditions together. Although the marinating requires some advance planning, this recipe is super-easy to make and bake just in time for your special someone on Valentine’s Day!
Send photos of the cake you and your special someone baked to edit@chaldeannews.com. If you have cherished wedding photos from days gone by, send those in as well and we will publish them on our website throughout the month of February.
