Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
- Time
- Serves 10
- Challenge
I can say with strong certainty that this is one of the best lemon poppy seed cake recipes out there. It's sweet, moist, has that lemony tang, everything you look for in a lemon cake. This cake is also really simple, there's a fair margin on some of the ingredients as long as the dry to wet ratio is maintained, a little fiddly, but well worth your time.
Ingredients
- 115g unsalted butter
- 200g light brown sugar
- 3 tbsp. lemon zest (that of 2 lemons)
- 1½ tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 215g plain flour
- 2 tbsp. poppy seeds
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- 120ml (soy) yogurt
- 60ml (oat) milk
- 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice (that of 1 lemon)
- 60g granulated sugar
- 60ml fresh lemon juice (that of 2 lemons)
For the cake:
For the glaze:
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C, and prepare your medium sized loaf pan (900g / 23 x 13cm) by rubbing with coconut oil.
- Beat together the butter, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time until incorporated.
- In another bowl, mix together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a jug, combine the yogurt, milk, and lemon juice.
- Slowly add, alternating, the dry ingredients and wet ingredients to the sugar, butter, and egg mixture.
- Mix gently until you have smooth batter and there aren't any lumps of butter or flour left, being careful not to incorporate too much air.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the cake has a nice brown top and the middle is set. Allow to cool for 30 minutes. Then remove from the pan, transfer to a wire rack, and poke the cake to make holes with a toothpick or small knife.
- Prepare the glaze by adding the sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.
- Pour the glaze over the cooled loaf slowly, and allow to sit for 20 minutes before enjoying.