Lemon poppy seed cake

One of the most popular recipes I’ve shared with you on A Sweet Muddle so far is for a boiled chocolate cake, which just so happens to be the first cake I ever baked in my life.  This Lemon poppy seed cake which I’m sharing with you today was The Cake, which finally tempted me to broaden my baking horizons and try something other than chocolate cake.

Like the boiled chocolate cake, this recipe is really simple to follow and consistently produces a great cake every time. 

Around the time I first came across the recipe for this cake, baking with poppy seeds had gone from being not very common place to suddenly being very ‘on trend’.   This revelation certainly shows how times change… these days you don’t have to look far to find some form of citrus poppyseed muffin or cake in most cafes.

Because it’s so easy to get my poppy seed fix elsewhere, it’s been a long time since I’ve baked my own poppy seed cake, but when I received this gorgeous Nordic Ware Heritage Bundt Tin for my birthday earlier in the year I was reminded of this old favourite and imagined how pretty it would look baked with angular lines and it’s lemon flavoured icing drizzled on top. 

I finally had an opportunity to christen my baking tin and did indeed choose to bake this Lemon poppy seed cake, which I have to say, turned out possibly even better than I had imagined.  What’s more, it tastes as good as I remember. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Lemon poppy seed cake

2015-04-11 23:50:13

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For the cake

1. 1 cup caster sugar
2. 150 g butter, softened
3. 3 eggs
4. 2 cups self raising flour
5. zest and juice of 2 lemons
6. ½ cup milk
7. ¼ cup poppy seeds

For the syrup (optional)

1. 1/3 cup lemon juice
2. 1/2 cup caster sugar

For the icing

1. 1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted
2. 3 tbsp lemon juice

For the cake

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease the inside of your bundt tin (or grease and line the base of a 20 cm round cake tin).
2. Using an electric mixer on a medium speed, beat the butter and sugar together until it’s light and creamy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat and until combined.
4. Sift some of the flour over the mixture and fold into the mixture, then fold in some of the milk. Continue to alternate folding in the two ingredients, then fold the lemon zest into the mixture.
5. Add the poppy seeds and lemon juice to the mixture and gently stir until the ingredients are well combined and the poppy seeds are evenly distributed.
6. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared cake tin, then bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until cooked (test with a skewer).
7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the cake tin for 10 minutes, then gently turn the cake out and leave to cool on a rack.

For the syrup (optional)

1. Place the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan and heat over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
2. While the cake is still warm, brush the glaze over the cake until all the syrup is dissolved*.

For the icing

1. When the cake has cooled completely, combine the sifted icing sugar and lemon juice in a small mixing bowl (preferably with a lip) and stir until the icing is smooth.
2. Slowly drizzle the icing over the cake and leave to set.

Notes

1. *Alternatively, using a bamboo skewer, poke several holes in the cake, then slowly drizzle the lemon syrup over the cake, allowing time for the syrup to absorb.
2. If you use a bundt cake tin, you may find that the cake has an uneven ‘base’ when you turn it out of the tin. For a more even base, use a bread knife to trim the base of the cake and create a flat surface.

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