I love eating the Lemon Poppy Seed Cake; it is soft, moist, tangy, not overly sweet and has a nice crunch when biting into it. It is a simple and easy butter cake to make. Besides breakfast, it would be great for afternoon tea. It would make a good birthday cake; just frost it with cream cheese and fresh cream or lemon cream cheese or just lemon glaze made from lemon juice and icing sugar.
Ingredients:
- 225 g butter
- 150 g sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
- 270 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 40 g poppy seeds
- 60 g milk
- 4 tbsp lemon juice
Method:
- Grease a 7-inch baking tray and line it with parchment paper.
- Pre-heat oven to 175 deg C.
- Add butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Cream butter and sugar till pale and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Lower the speed of the mixer and add vanilla essence to the batter.
- Add the grated lemon zest to the batter.
- Remove bowl from the mixer.
- Sieve all-purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda.
- Add salt to the flour.
- Add poppy seed and combine well.
- Add flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture, 1/3 at a time. Mix well using a spatula.
- Add milk to the batter. Mix well.
- Lastly, add the lemon juice.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared tray.
- Bake for 50 minutes.
- Check that the cake is cooked by inserting a wooden skewer into the cake. It should come out clean.
- Let the cake cool down completely before cutting.
- Serve.